MC 2014 top 10/bottom 5 lists - gimme them!

[Stay Puft]

Okay so let's give it a shot. We've got that old best of 2014 thread a page back but I want to give everyone a chance to update/revise/whatever you want to do to in order to prepare a final list for submission. I'll set some ground rules, but this should be pretty straightforward:

1. Submit a Top 10 and a Bottom 5. (The bottom 5 is optional; if people prefer, just do a top 10 and we'll focus on that).

2. Submit only one (1) ballot. That means one post only. You can continue to update that post until the deadline if that's how you roll, I won't be counting anything until then. You can also send me a PM if you prefer secrecy.

3. US release dates (see the handy 2014 subforum for eligibility).

I am going to set the deadline for Thursday, September 24 at 11:59pm. A week should be good to give everybody one last chance to think about their list (you've already had quite some time!) and also just to give everybody a chance to see this thread and participate (since traffic here isn't what it used to be).

And begin:

[Lazlo]

Rock and roll:

1. Interstellar
2. Gone Girl
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Inherent Vice
5. Boyhood
6. A Most Violent Year
7. Love is Strange
8. Guardians of the Galaxy
9. Birdman
10. Force Majeure

Bottom:

1. (Worst) The Monuments Men
2. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
3. 300: Rise of an Empire
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
5. (Least worst) Fury

[Ivan Drago]

1. Under The Skin
2. Birdman
3. Nightcrawler
4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
5. Gone Girl
6. Whiplash
7. The Guest
8. Guardians of the Galaxy
9. Jodorowsky's Dune
10. Cheap Thrills

Worst:

46. Lucy (least worst)
47. VHS: Viral
48. Mood Indigo
49. The Hobbit: It's Finally Over, People
50. The Identical (absolute worst)

[Melville]

1. Force Majeure
2. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
3. Leviathan
4. Whiplash
5. Two Days, One Night
6. Locke
7. Under the Skin
8. Joe
9. Nightcrawler
10. The Double

Movie I would almost certainly hate but still briefly considered watching: whichever Hobbit movie came out.

[Spinal]

1. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
2. Under the Skin
3. The Lunchbox
4. The Lego Movie
5. Boyhood
6. The Boxtrolls
7. We Are the Best!
8. The Expedition to the End of the World
9. Locke
10. Into the Woods

Don't really have a worst list to share.

[TGM]

Top 10:
1. Interstellar
2. Predestination
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Selma
5. Edge of Tomorrow
6. The Raid 2
7. Only Lovers Left Alive
8. John Wick
9. Birdman
10. Need for Speed

Bottom 5:
1. Brick Mansions (worst)
2. Tusk
3. Dumb and Dumber To
4. Divergent
5. The Monuments Men

[Ezee E]

1. Gone Girl
2. Birdman
3. Interstellar
4. Grand Budapest Hotel
5. The Babadook
6. Mommy
7. St Vincent
8. Wild Tales
9. Edge of Tomorrow
10. Noah

5. Lets Be Cops
4. Monument Men
3. Neighbors
2. The Other Woman
1. Sabotage

[Peng]

Top
1. Two Days, One Night
2. Boyhood
3. Only Lovers Left Alive
4. Under the Skin
5. The Tale of Princess Kaguya
6. Interstellar
7. Coherence
8. Snowpiercer
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel
10. Starred Up

Bottom
1. In Fear
2. The Amazing Spider-man 2
3. That Awkward Moment
4. A Million Ways to Die in the West
5. Divergent

[Pop Trash]

Tops
1. The Immigrant
2. Under the Skin
3. Boyhood
4. We Are the Best!
5. Only Lovers Left Alive
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
7. Nightcrawler
8. Gone Girl
9. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
10. Jodorowsky's Dune

Bottoms
1. The Fault in Our Stars
2. Nymph()maniac Vol. II
3. Dumb and Dumber To
4. 22 Jump Street
5. Neighbors

[Sycophant]

BEST
1. The Tale of Princess Kaguya
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Calvary
4. The Wind Rises
5. Boyhood
6. Snowpiercer
7. Edge of Tomorrow
8. Happy Christmas
9. Ida
10. The Immigrant

WORST
1. Supermensch (worst)
2. Anchorman 2
3. Godzilla
4. Birdman
5. Guardians of the Galaxy

[ContinentalOp]

1. Two Days, One Night
2. Only Lovers Left Alive
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
4. X Men
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
6. Frank
7. Life Itself
8. Whiplash
9. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
10. The Raid 2


Bottom
1. (Worst) Son of Batman
2. Chef
3. White Bird in a Blizzard
4. 22 Jump Street
5. Sin City: What the Hell

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Nightcrawler
5. Guardians of the Galaxy
6. The Better Angels
7. We Are the Best!
8. Only Lovers Left Alive
9. Interstellar
10. Gone Girl

Some major 2014 titles remain unseen by me (Force Majeure, Two Days One Night, Stranger by the Lake), and with my attention focused on the upcoming Netflix streamageddon, I don't think I'm likely to catch up before the 24th.

[baby doll]

Top:
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
2. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
4. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
5. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
6. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
7. The Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier)
8. Locke (Steven Knight)
9. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
10. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)

Obviously there's still a ton of stuff I haven't seen, and possibly some worthy titles I'm forgetting.

[Stay Puft]

1. We are the Best!
2. The Wind Rises
3. Only Lovers Left Alive
4. Manakamana
5. Story of My Death
6. Stranger by the Lake
7. X-Men: Days of Future Past
8. The Boxtrolls
9. The Raid 2
10. The Grand Budapest Hotel

Bottom
1. Transformers: Age of Extinction
2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
3. The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies
4. That Demon Within
5. The Equalizer

[dreamdead]

1. Ida
2. Only Lovers Left Alive
3. Stranger by the Lake
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Boyhood
6. Under the Skin
7. It Felt Like Love
8. Listen Up Philip
9. Calvary
10. Force Majeure

[Stay Puft]

Less than a day to go!

Any more lists?

[Dukefrukem]

Yes. Sorry I was suppsioed to do this last night and hung out with my girl instead.

I promise I'll get it in by end of the day today.

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. Whiplash
2. Snowpiercer
3. The Lego Movie
4. Under the Skin
5. Nightcrawler
6. The Babadook
7. The Boxtrolls
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel
9. Boyhood
10. John Wick

[Stay Puft]

Okay small change of plans, I'll start tallying this up when I get home from work tomorrow. So I'll still accept lists (either via pm or in this thread) until then, providing a grace period for any stragglers (e.g. duke).

[Dukefrukem]

Damn it I forgot my list at home and I won't be around until tomorrow morning. :(

[Dukefrukem]

Not updated but here's an old list I have:

1. Interstellar
2. Nighcrawler
3. Predestination
4. Captain America: Winter Soldier
5. Gone Girl
6. The Raid 2
7. Guardians of the Galaxy
8. The Sacrament
9. The Lego Movie
10. Whiplash

5. Godzilla
4. Sin City 2
3. Transformers: Age of Extinction
2. I, Frankenstein
1. Left Behind

[Stay Puft]

I'm counting these up as we speak. Pretty exciting! It's an incredibly close race.

I'll just be doing a Bottom 5 (instead of the planned 10) since there's not enough data for a meaningful list beyond the five particular films MC really, really hated.

[Stay Puft]

I'm done but damn there are a couple massive ties that appeared at the last minute. I'll allow duke to give me his final list in the morning and I'll also send out one more call for lists.

Gimme something to work with, Match Cut! Anything! The list has shaped up quite nicely, I think, even with the small amount of data I have to work with. But yeah I'd really like just a bit more here to crack apart those ties and present something a little more safely definitive (e.g. our top ten right now is actually a top 11 because of a three way tie for 9; that's no fun).

[Henry Gale]

Oh! I remembered today I forgot to submit mine! (Likely due to the dumb idea of putting it off until I would miraculously catch up with everything I still wanted to in a week.)

(best)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) (Iñárritu)
Boyhood (Linklater)
Inherent Vice (Anderson)
The Lego Movie (Lord/Miller)
Under The Skin (Glazer)
We Are The Best! (Moodysson)
Gone Girl (Fincher)
The Guest (Wingard)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Anderson)
Edge Of Tomorrow (Liman)


-----

5. Horrible Bosses 2 (Anders)
4. A Million Ways To Die In The West (MacFarlane)
3. Men, Women & Children (Reitman)
2. Maleficent (Stromberg)
1. Hercules (Ratner)
(worst)

[Gizmo]

Late entry, was away for the past week+. Only 20 films seen so far though:

Best:
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel
8. Nymphomaniac Volume 1
7. Gone Girl
6. The Lego Movie
5. Interstellar
4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
3. Under the Skin
2. Boyhood
1. Birdman

Worst:
5. Into the Woods
4. The Interview
3. Noah
2. A Million Ways to Die in the West
1. Bad Grandpa

[Dukefrukem]

I'm done but damn there are a couple massive ties that appeared at the last minute. I'll allow duke to give me his final list in the morning and I'll also send out one more call for lists.

Gimme something to work with, Match Cut! Anything! The list has shaped up quite nicely, I think, even with the small amount of data I have to work with. But yeah I'd really like just a bit more here to crack apart those ties and present something a little more safely definitive (e.g. our top ten right now is actually a top 11 because of a three way tie for 9; that's no fun).

Here is the final list. I knew I had seen more and maybe this will help things.


1 Interstellar
2 Guardians of the Galaxy
3 Birdman
4 John Wick
5 Predestination
6 Gone Girl
7 The Raid 2
8 Whiplash
9 The Guest
10 Nightcrawler


and the bottom 5 of all the movies I've seen from 2014

73 Into the Storm
74 300: Rise of an Empire
75 Brick Mansions
76 Devil’s Due
77 Left Behind

[Henry Gale]

Wow, Gizmo. If I had actually gotten around to Nymphomaniac to know for sure, liked Dawn even more than I did, and bumped up Guardians and Interstellar a few spots each, our top tens would be eerily similar.



5. Into the Woods
4. The Interview
3. Noah
2. A Million Ways to Die in the West
1. Bad Grandpa

But I definitely liked these and Noah even still sits in my Top 20, so it can't all be exact. Haha..

[Stay Puft]

Okay, I think we're good. Everything got tied up in ridiculous ways on both the best and worst countdown lists, with the recent updates/additions. I'm not worried about the Bottom 5, since there was never enough data to work with and make it worthwhile, as I said. I'll just give a shout out to these five terrible films as part of the introduction, but otherwise go straight to the Top 20 countdown. That's the meat and potatoes, anyways.

Regarding the Top 20 ties, I had a couple ridiculous four way ties and that just don't jive with me. I need the data. With the last set of lists that smoothed out in a way but still resulted in a series of repeated two way ties. It's manageable, and the Top 20 is looking pretty clear, but I still wanted some way to break apart the ties a bit. This was my final idea: I went into the Top 10 of 2014 thread Boner made way back when, and just looked at the last page to grab the final lists/updates from anyone who posted there recently (i.e. from earlier this year, around when we would/should have normally done this; e.g. Sxott, Madman). This gave me a handful of extra lists that both: 1. Did not change the 20 films that were present in the countdown, thus preserving the integrity of what we already determined the best films in this thread; and 2. Destroyed three of the ties, thus creating a definitive Top 10 and leaving only one tie near the back end alongside one weird three way tie that, well, we're just going to have to live with, but is so perfectly representative of the diversity of MC's tastes that I'll argue it was fate and gladly wash my hands of it.

Oh, and I guess there's a third thing: 3. The number one film did not change during any of this. There were originally two films neck and neck - the top 10 is still an incredibly close race overall - but one of them quickly assumed a commanding lead, while a third came surging up out of nowhere near the end and stole second place. Basically the work of Gizmo and Henry there. But enough teasing. I'll save the deets for the new thread!

The Countdown will begin tomorrow!

[Stay Puft]

If anybody saw my mad panic update just now, pretend you did not. It has been a long day and I am very tired and running on little sleep (which is why I'm delaying starting the countdown until tomorrow, to double check my work in the morning).

Technically my update was true (something did in fact get bumped when I added the new data to break the ties, meaning I lied in my last post) but I ALSO forgot (because I'm tired) that it was itself a film TIED with another film for the final spot on the list. By breaking the ties, I banished them from the Top 20 but in doing so also made the Top 20 definitively the 20 (AND ONLY 20) best films of 2014. It was necessary. So fuck it, I'm not sorry, and I'm proceeding as planned. Those films can burn in hell (aka the Honorable Mentions).

[dreamdead]

No worries. Thanks for compiling this all together, I'm looking forward to seeing it...

And apparently I need to privilege Godard's film. That's my main takeaway.

[Gizmo]

Wow, Gizmo. If I had actually gotten around to Nymphomaniac to know for sure, liked Dawn even more than I did, and bumped up Guardians and Interstellar a few spots each, our top tens would be eerily similar.



But I definitely liked these and Noah even still sits in my Top 20, so it can't all be exact. Haha..

I actually like Into the Woods and The Interview enough to watch them again, but when you only see 20 films, and try to avoid clunkers, decent films will be on the bottom of the list.

[Dukefrukem]

Love the passion here Stay Puft. :)

[Henry Gale]

I actually like Into the Woods and The Interview enough to watch them again, but when you only see 20 films, and try to avoid clunkers, decent films will be on the bottom of the list.

I hear ya. When I was a teenager I would watch virtually everything I could (I have a 2004 release word doc that states I watched 130 releases from that year alone), but I've naturally grown to only have the desire to watch things I imagine to get something out of! (Crazy!)

I say this still having apparently watched ~70 films from 2014.. :confused:

[Grouchy]

I realize this has already been dealt with, I'm just posting mine for fun:

1. Force Majeure
2. Nightcrawler
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Gone Girl
5. Two Days, One Night
6. It Follows
7. Mommy
8. The Raid 2
9. Inherent Vice
10. Guardians of the Galaxy

Worst:

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2. Top Five
3. Magic in the Moonlight
4. The Amazing Spiderman 2
5. The Monuments Men