The Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls honestly got better after watching the credits! This isn't just any type of animation, it's actually puppets! Wow. Mind blow. Drop the mic....

Nightcrawler

I actually enjoyed Nightcrawler quite a bit. It features Jake Gyllenhaal as a slightly overzealous nightcrawler, the people who video tape all the bad stuff that happens at night time and arrive on the scene first and then use that footage to sell to local TV Stations. He's really passionate about it, but he goes a little too far. Creating his own stories by removing brakes in the car of a rival nightcrawler, played by Bill Paxton. Gyllenhaal also ends up terribly manipulating the women who forms a relationship with at the TV Station, played by Rene Russo, both in terms of business and pleasure. In the end, Gyllenhaal ends up getting his sidekick murdered, player by Riz Ahmed, while shooting some footage. He's a menace! 4 stars.

Birdman

I wasn't particularly fond of this movie and I could tell why because the first thing that came to mind was Frances Ha. It was one of these movies that makes me think that sometimes people go a little overboard on New York City. Look, it's an awesome place, but it isn't the center of the universe either. It had an interesting style for sure. I will give it that. Perhaps it was creative in the way that it made you always feel like you're in a Broadway play. Kinda weird, maybe. But that's kind of what the style of 2014 films is about; different ways of filming.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ends the "trilogy" directed by Peter Jackson of the JRR Tolkien 100-page book, "The Hobbit." They drew this one out a little bit, but no doubt, it was a very fun journey. This is the type of fantasy that Hollywood can tell and it does it in the most magnificent way. Yes, the original version is 100 pages, but there's a lot packed in to those pages and the reader / viewer goes on a fantastic journey. The Hobbit concludes an epic tail in an epic way.

Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 was a real fun movie to watch. It takes place in a fusion city called San Fransokyo and chronicles Hiro who is a misdirected youth who starts out fighting robots against once another. Baymax is the big robot that Hiro's brother, Tadashi, created as a project at his cool robotics university. Baymax is a personal care assistant and he turns out to be just that. Hiro spends the remainder of the movie trying to seek revenge on his brother's murderer and does so by changing his brother's friends (who become his friends) in to "super" heroes all with specific super powers! All along the way, there are funny things that happen between Baymax and Hiro, specifically when Hiro tries to teach Baymax how to "pound fists." Hiro says woooosh, Baymax says falalalalala. Lol. Anyway, this was really fun and I'm giving it 4 stars.

The Imitation Game

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing and teaches us about the early years of computation and code breaking with the Enigma machine. Turns out being able to predict your opponents moves makes a big deal in war and was able to give the Allies the victory in the end. The movie also peers in to, though subtly, the fact that Turing was a homosexual. He was treated very poorly by the British even though he also helped win the war.

The Interview

The latest Seth Rogen & James Franco flick about assassinating the supreme leader of North Korea has its fair share of shenanigans inside and outside of the movie. Allegedly, North Korea (the real country) hacked Sony Pictures in order to boycott the film (President Obama even referenced the attack during a press interview). I have a conspiracy theory that this was all a hoax put on by Sony, Google, and Microsoft in order to boost attention and sales of the film that ended up being distributed online via YouTube, Google Play, XBox, etc. As far as the movie goes, its Seth and James in fine form and in my memory, one of the most intimate movie between these two actors who usually work alongside a posse. James Franco's character, David Skylark is a talk show host who is directed by Seth Rogen's character, Aaron Rappaport. Skylark gets celebrities to come on his show and they reveal things about their lives (like Eminem saying he's gay and Rob Lowe admitting he's bald). Skylark finds out Kim is a fan of his show and begs Aaron to get an interview. Aaron goes through a lot of trouble to even meet the North Koreans (getting an address in terms of coordinate for instance). Once they solidify the interview, the CIA gets involved. Agent Lacey, played by the swelteringly hot (and then not) Lizzy Caplan provides the context for out first usage of the term honeypotting / honeydicking which means using some type of manipulation in order to hypnotize someone else into what you want. I'm not sure if these terms existed before this movie, but it's most definitely one of the big takeaways in terms of lexicon from this movie. Skylark and Rappaport are trained by the CIA (comedy ensues) and head off to North Korea to enact the plan that obviously goes completely awry. Regardless, The Interview was fun to watch, makes you believe a little more in America and free speech, and is a great buddy-buddy film starring two of the best in the biz: 4 stars!