The movie with the most buzz in 2014 didn’t have anything to do with “Star Wars”, “Star Trek”, “The Hunger Games”, or hobbits.
Because of hacks at Sony and threats against movie goers, “The Interview”, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco playing a television show producer and host that are asked by the U.S. government to kill the leader of North Korea, was the most talked about movie of the year.
Sony cancelled the Christmas Day premiere and then after a huge backlash across the country and from the President of the United States, the movie was released in more than 300 theaters on Christmas Day and it was made available online for $5.99.
Sony is now calling “The Interview” its “top grossing online film of all time” after it made more than $15 million in digital rentals and purchases in its first four days. It also made almost $3 million in limited release at theaters in its first four days.
I still want to see it and one year from now, we’ll see if it makes my 2015 list.
Here are my favorite movies of 2014. Notice I said, “favorite”. These may not be the “best” movies of the year that Oscar will shine on, but these are my favorites that I enjoyed and would watch again.
This is 20 to #11. The top ten will be posted tomorrow.
“PRIDE”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $1.4 MILLION
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $7.5 MILLION
“THE FAULT IN OUR STARS”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $124.9 MILLION
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $304.2 MILLION
“FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: —
“JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $2.9 MILLION
“OUT OF THE FURNACE”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $11.3 MILLION
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $15.4 MILLION
“BAGGAGE CLAIM”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $21.6 MILLION
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $22.5 MILLION
“SNOWPIERCER”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $4.6 MILLION
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $86.8 MILLION
“DIVERGENT”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $150.9 MILLION
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $288.7 MILLION
“UNBROKEN”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $47.3 MILLION
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $47.3 MILLION
“GLORIA”
U.S. BOX OFFICE: $2.1 MILLION
Thank you for checking out #20 to #11. Which ones have you watched and did you see any that you might want to check out now?
Check back tomorrow for my ten favorite movies of 2014.
If you’re looking for a couple of movies to rent, I have some suggestions.
“OUT OF THE FURNACE”
Christian Bale is one of the best actors in the movie business today.
“Out of The Furnace” is a little seen movie that came out about a week before his Oscar-nominated role in “American Hustle”.
In the movie, Bale plays Russell Baze, a West Virginia steel mill worker that has a beautiful girlfriend (Zoe Saldana) that wants to have a baby, a brother (Casey Affleck) with a gambling problem and is struggling with life after serving in the war, and a dying father.
He works every day and is paying off his little brother’s gambling debts. After stopping for a few drinks after work one night, he’s involved in an accident that changes his life forever.
Also, his little brother disappears and Russell feels it’s up to him to find out what happened and to make things right.
The movie features incredible performances from Bale, Affeck, Saldana, and Woody Harrelson as a New Jersey sociopathic, inbreed, drug dealer named Harlan DeGroat.
GRADE: A
“THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY”
While it’s a Christmas-themed movie, I recently watched “The Best Man Holiday”, the sequel to Malcolm D. Lee’s 1999 hit, “The Best Man”, and I loved it.
The $17 million movie brought in an incredible $71.6 million in theaters. While I didn’t see the original and know the history of the characters, I could still follow the storyline.
In the movie, Mia and Lance invite their group of friends – boyfriends/girlfriends, spouses, and a couple of single friends to their ritzy, gorgeously Christmas-decorated mansion to share a secret with them.
However, Mia and Lance’s secrets aren’t the only ones revealed.
“The Best Man Holiday” is funny, cute, and sentimental!
It’s Friday and it’s Easter weekend. I hope it’s a nice one for you and if you’re going to church, enjoy the services. I hope your Easter egg hunts are dry and fun and your Easter feast is a tasty one.
I’m working Saturday, so Ray and Gretel are celebrating with Ray’s family in northwestern Iowa and my sister, Tammy, is visiting her granddaughters in Tennessee. So, I’m home alone and I plan on sleeping in Sunday, having pancakes, and watching a couple of my favorite movies again.
If you’re thinking of what to buy someone for a great Easter present and bunnies come to mind, make it a chocolate bunny!
Here are my random thoughts this Friday. Thank you for checking them out.
AIRLINE THREATS ARE NOT FUNNY
Before the 1970s, it was a much different world when it came to flying. High profile plane hijacking changed the rather lax airport security.
I remember seeing a cartoon during my childhood of a man raising his hand to his friend and yelling “Hi Jack” before being arrested.
After the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11, it’s hard to imagine anyone making a joke of threatening an airline, an airport, or a plane.
However, last Sunday night, it happened when a 14-year-old Dutch girl, “Sarah”, sent a threatening tweet to American Airlines.
Once she realized that this was turning into a big deal with the police involved, she tweeted, “I was joking and it was my friend not me, take her IP address not mine. I’m so scared I’m just a 14-year-old white girl I’m not a terrorist.” She was arrested the next day!
I have two things to say about this. I don’t care how old someone is when they threaten to bomb a plane. It’s not a joke and they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Secondly, if this tweet is proven to be sent by a “14-year-old white girl who is not “a terrorist”, she’s truly offensive. Implying that a “white girl” couldn’t possibly be a “terrorist” is racist!
Sadly, the only leeway I’ll give her on that one is immaturity, but even a teenager should know that the tweet would cause fear in some people and that is terrorism!
Incredibly, this has caused a rash of similar copycat tweets to American and other airlines. Real threats or not, this is just mind-boggling!
HAPPY FLIGHT
On a happier airline note, I sure hope this flight attendant is working my next Southwest Airlines’ flight.
I hope this made you smile.
HE CUT OFF WHAT?
Rapper Andre Johnson, also known as Christ Bearer, is recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after severing his penis and jumping off the second floor balcony of his North Hollywood apartment!
Those present say that no one was using drugs and that they believe he suffered from mental illness.
TMZ reports that efforts to reattach the appendage were unsuccessful.
If Johnson is mentally ill, I hope that he gets the help he needs. If he isn’t ill, this was a very painful and horrific plea for attention!
And, as a man, this is just painful to think about!
WHILE WE’RE IN THAT MIND SET…
Now that “How I Met Your Mother” has ended its nine-year run on CBS, Neil Patrick Harris is getting rave reviews for his upcoming Broadway performance in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”
If you’re not familiar with the rock musical/love story, Hansel is an East German that falls in love with an American soldier.
Since the couple wants to get married and the laws says that it has to be a man and a woman, Hansel’s mother changes his named to Hedwig (her name) and finds a doctor to perform a sex change. The operation is botched leaving Hedwig with the so-called “angry inch”.
Harris’ performance as Hedwig on Broadway runs from April through August.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
TATTOOS
Do you have a tattoo? While still somewhat controversial, getting inked is becoming mainstream.
Even Miss Kansas 2013, Theresa Vail, is tattooed with the Serenity Prayer and a military medical insignia. She says, “If I were crowned Miss America, bearing my tattoos, do you realize the stereotypes and stigmas it would break?”
If you’re in your thirties, there’s a 40% chance that you have a tattoo. If not, 30% of people in their 20s and almost 30% of people in the 40s are getting inked!
More women than men and Hispanics more than whites or blacks have body art.
Two years ago this week, I join the group of white men in their 40s to get a tattoo. It was a painful, almost four-hour process and I’m very happy to sport it and show it off.
As you know, my sweet golden retriever and my best friend , Miss ABBA, went to “puppy heaven” in February 2012.
Two months later, I turned her beautiful face into body art. Here’s the picture from Halloween 2011 and you can see the final product.
John Kautz, from O’Toole Design, in Rock Island, Illinois, did an incredible job.
However, one thing that I forgot to mention in the blog was his one year affair with “The Exorcist” star Linda Blair.
At the time, he was 25 at the time and she was only 15! I guess things were different in the 1970s and in Hollywood!
“Don’t Talk To Strangers” hit #2 in 1982 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the second biggest hit of Rick’s career behind the number one, Grammy-winning smash, “Jessie’s Girl” the year before.
“OUT OF THE FURNACE”
Christian Bale is one of the best actors in the movie business today.
“Out of The Furnace” is a little seen movie that came out about a week before his Oscar-nominated role in “American Hustle”.
In the movie, Bale plays Russell Baze, a West Virginia steel mill worker that has a beautiful girlfriend (Zoe Saldana) that wants to have a baby, a brother (Casey Affleck) with a gambling problem and is struggling with life after serving in the war, and a dying father.
He works every day and is paying off his little brother’s gambling debts. After stopping for a few drinks after work one night, he’s involved in an accident that changes his life forever.
Also, his little brother disappears and Russell feels it’s up to him to find out what happened and to make things right.
The movie features incredible performances from Bale, Affeck, Saldana, and Woody Harrelson as a New Jersey sociopathic, inbreed, drug dealer named Harlan DeGroat.
GRADE: A
DAVID DUCHOVNY IS COMING TO NBC
Once Showtime’s “Californication” wraps up its seventh and final season in late June, David Duchovny will star in the new NBC series, “Aquarius”.
The 13-epidsode drama take place in the late-1960s. Duchovny stars as a Los Angeles police sergeant “who starts tracking a small-time criminal and budding cult leader seeking out vulnerable women to join his ’cause.’ The name of that man is Charles Manson.”
NBC goes on to say that “the twists and turns of a complicated undercover operation will lead Duchovny’s character and his young partner to the brink of Manson’s crimes that will eventually lead to the Tate-LaBianca murders in subsequent seasons.”
Here’s my two cents. I love David Duchovny and I’ve always been intrigued with serial killers. I’ll be watching.
NBC, if “Crisis” and “Hannibal” are not renewed, please write Gillian Anderson into the script and let her work with Duchovny’s character!
“I’M A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY”
The first concert that Ray and I went to together was Keith Urban and Taylor Swift in Moline in June 2009. Both were amazing performers and this was before I quickly tired of the teen sensation.
Since his first hit on the Billboard Country chart in 1999, “It’s A Love Thing”, reached #18 (his first four releases from 1990 and 1991 didn’t chart), Urban has been a force to reckon with on country radio.
Of his 33 Top 40 hits, an incredible 31 have hit the Top Ten, the aforementioned “Love Thing” and “Blue Sky” by Emily West, which he was just featured on and so, really that one doesn’t count!
28 of his hits have made the Top 5 and 15 have topped the Country charts.
The ones that spent multiple weeks on top are: “Somebody Like You” (6 weeks, 2002), “You’ll Think Of Me” (2 weeks, 2004), “Days Go By” (4 weeks, 2004), “Making Memories Of Us” (5 weeks, 2005), “Better Life” (6 weeks, 2005), “Sweet Thing” (2 weeks, 2009), “You Gonna Fly” (2 weeks, 2012), and “We Were Us” (with Miranda Lambert, 3 weeks, 2013).
Keith’s current hit, “Cop Car”, recently reached #4 on the Billboard Country chart.
HAPPY EASTER!
Have a great weekend! Here’s a flashback to Easter 2001 and Miss ABBA and the Easter bunny.
That’s it for this week. I hope you enjoyed my random thoughts.
Let me know what you think. I always appreciate feedback — good or bad. Well, obviously, I like the positive comments more!
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 