Review: X-Men - Days Of Future Past

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

2014

Starring: Hugh Jackman, James MacAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Peter Dinklage, Nicholas Hoult, Halle Berry, Ellen Page, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Shawn Ashmore

Rated: PG-13

I don't want your few-cha!

          ~Charles Xavier

X-Men Retrospective: The Wolverine (2013)

The Wolverine

2013

Director: James Mangold

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Hal Yamanouchi, Famke Janssen

Rated: PG-13 (but go for the Unrated cut)

Today is not my day

     ~Yukio

X-Men Retrospective: X-Men Origins - Wolverine (2009)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009

Director: Gavin Hood

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Taylor Kitsch, Will.i.am, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Kevin Durand, Dominic Monaghan, Ryan Reynolds and Scott Adkins as Ryan Reynolds

Rated: PG-13

Nobody gets to kill you but me!

      ~Victor Creed

Back to back!

      ~Logan

X-Men Retrospective: X-Men - The Last Stand (2006)

X-Men: The Last Stand

2006

Director: Brett Ratner

Starring: Hugh Jackman, HALLE BERRY, Ian McKellan, Famke Janssen, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Ben Foster, James Marsden, Kelsey Grammar, Rebecca Romijn, Vinnie Jones

Rated: PG-13

Hello, Moira...

  ~Charles Xavier

X-Men Retrospective: X2 - X-Men United (2003)

X2: X-Men United

2003

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Brian Cox, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Alan Cumming, Shawn Ashmore, Kelly Hu

Rated: PG-13

You know all those dangerous mutants you hear about in the news?  I'm the worst one.

                              ~Pyro

X-Men Retrospective: X-Men (2000)

X-Men

2000

Director: Bryan Singer

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Famke Jannssen, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Bruce Davison, Tyler Mane, Ray Park

Rated: PG-13

Do you know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning?

                        ~Storm

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2006

This year turned out to be really easy, but contained a lot of my absolute favorites from the entire decade.  I remember being severely disappointed in the Best Picture nominees for this particular year.  And while I liked The Departed and think Scorsese's career deserved a Best Director statue, I was rooting against its Best Picture win, because its a remake and a lot of it (including full sequences and framings) were ripped straight from the original.  Also, this was the year of the Mexican director, but of the 3 that made big time films, they picked the one that wasn't even that good of a movie as a Best Picture nominee.  But, what can you do.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2003

2003 was kind of a crummy year until summer hit. There's some big big movies and many people's all time faves within this year but overall it was pretty weak sauce.  I have some pretty notable omissions here, like Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl and the best movie in the Infernal Affairs Trilogy (part 2), but that's the way the cookie crumbled I suppose.  The Academy finally recognized a LOTR movie, but it felt as if the award was for the series as a whole, being that they waited til the final one for it to garner the Best Picture win.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2000

After some tougher years, 2000 was almost a breeze in comparison.  I had plenty to choose from.  A lot of smaller movies dominated the chopping block, but it was a painless crawl to the required 6.  2000 was big year in my life as I had graduated high school in the summer and began college.  I also noticed on the list that there were a fair amount of movies that I enjoyed back then and kind of sort of have grown to detest over the years since.

My 2013: My 2014 - 10 Films I'm Looking Forward To

So tomorrow 2013 will be over and we will be ringing in 2014.  While 2015 looks to be THE year to go to the movies (well, if you're a franchise person), 2014 will be no slouch.  There's already plenty of notable projects and I'm sure more will pop up as the year goes and we get some more trailers and extra buzz from screenings.  While 2015 has all the hype in the world, it also could be setting up for a big disappointment.  2014 on the other hand has the sort of "well, let's just get through this year so we can get to 2015" type feel with the movies, meaning its probably going to surprise and turn out to be pretty damn good in its own right.  Remember or summer 2011 was only the preface to summer 2012...and then 2011 wound up being the much better summer?  I'm not saying that will happen, I'm just saying let's not discount 2014 before its even begun.

Below are 10 films that are currently on my radar (there's more than 10 actually, but I have ten digits and its a nice clean cut off) going into 2014.

The Cinematic Relationship Of Wolverine & Jean Grey Is Silly

Next to Batman, the X-Men franchise is probably my favorite comic book/superhero film series.  When I was younger I not only read the comic books, but watched the animated series that ran on Fox religiously (my son's name is Logan, mind you haha).  A common character thread through all that is a love triangle between the characters of Jean Grey, Cyclops and Wolverine.  It was always entertaining and Wolverine and Jean Grey just seemed like they were never going to happen, but we wanted them to cuz Wolverine was "cool" and Scott Summers was a douchebag most of the time.  The cinematic universe of the X-Men kinda goes of the deep end with the Wolverine/Jean Grey matchup that isn't earned, is completely forced and very silly when you break it down.