The discussion and the controversy surrounding “The Interview” has been well and truly played out. Given Kansas City’s larger selection of movie theaters, I was able to see it on the big screen. For those reading in Hays, the film is available via iTunes – making it one of very few features films to be released in both cinemas and digital on-demand at the same time. The film itself is as irreverent and immature as it has been made out to be; however, to be fair, there are comedies that are far more offensive than “The Interview.”
Stars James Franco and Seth Rogen have an indisputable chemistry and rapport that easily sells the buddy-comedy portion of this film. While “The Interview” isn’t my favorite comedy of the year, I do believe it had the funniest set-piece of 2014. There is a scene in this movie involving an animal, binoculars and a supply drop that had me laughing to the point where it was getting legitimately difficult to breath.
It will be interesting to compare “The Interview’s” final box office numbers to its projected take given the controversy. I maintain that with the last-minute release and the digital on-demand option, it might in fact make more money than if the release had been unmarred by international cyber terrorism. Regardless, I don’t think “The Interview” was worth all of the fuss, but it sure made me laugh. If a wildly inappropriate film about comedically assassinating one of the world’s worst people sounds like your cup of tea, then I recommend you find a way to watch if. If not, well then the highlights of 2014, listed below, all would make excellent substitutions.
4 of 6 stars
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In summary, I reviewed a total of 51 movies over the course of 2014. Of those 51 reviews, the average score works out to 3.98, compared to a 4.38 for the partial year of 2012, and a 4.15 for 2013. According to the cold, hard math, 2014 has been the least favorable year for movies in my tenure as a movie reviewer. Furthermore, 2014 only had two films clock in with a 6 out of 6, “The Lego Movie” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
As far as favorites go, it should be no surprise to regular readers that “Guardians of the Galaxy” easily takes the top spot for my favorite film of 2014. Rounding out the other categories, “Gone Girl” was my favorite drama, and “Dumb and Dumber To” was probably my favorite pure comedy movie. That said, “Guardians of the Galaxy” was also probably the funniest movie of the year for me, even if it wasn’t a pure comedy.
I think that we’ll chalk 2014 as the calm before the storm. With such heavy-hitters as “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakes,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and new entries in the “Jurassic Park,” “Terminator” and “Pitch Perfect” franchises, it’s sure to be a lucrative year at the box office. How the year turns out in terms of review scores, only time will tell.