The Best Movies of 2014

2014 took us from a claustrophobic theater on Broadway all the way through a wormhole and back. We watched a woman hike 1,000 miles and we saw a boy grow into a man before our eyes. A talking raccoon opened a can of whoop-ass on the galaxy and Tyler Perry was, somehow, great in Gone Girl. All of this and I’ve barely scratched the surface of amazing experiences in cinema this past year. Disclaimer: Seeing as filmwriting isn’t a full-time gig for me, I obviously was unable to see every movie that came through theaters in 2014. This is simply the best of what I saw.

Without further ado, I present my picks for the 20 best movies of 2014.

Best Action Movies of All-Time

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, Road House, and Kickboxer.  I point out these milestones for no reason other than to serve as a segway into much better movies.  There are few greater pleasures in life than a good ol’fashioned action movie, and this here is the cream of the crop.  The best of the best.

The few.  The proud.  The greatest action movies ever.

Matt Watches Scat #1: Playing For Keeps (2012)

Rotten Tomatoes Critic’s Score: 4%

Audience Score: 42%

Welcome to the first installment of a new series called “Matt Watches Scat”, wherein I subject myself to absolute turds made for the lowest-common-denominator audience. There are only two criteria: it needs to be a movie I’ve never seen before, and it must have a Tomatometer score of less than 20%. Beyond that, I will watch any film, from any genre and any era. The honorary (if you can call it an honor) first film was chosen to keep fùtbol fever alive. While you were dreaming about drinking shitty German beer in a bar full of sweaty Americans pretending to be die-hard soccer fans (nice Messi jersey you bought two weeks ago, bro), I was balls deep into a bottle of $20 tequila and praying for God to intervene and smite me while watching the 2012 abortion of a romantic comedy, Playing For Keeps.

The Best Movies on Netflix Instant: 2014 Edition

Countless new titles come and go every month in Netflix’s massive on-demand library of movies and television shows. Due to the in-depth recommendation algorithm, it can be hard to find movies that don’t automatically populate in your queues. Because of this, there are hundreds of fantastic titles that fly under the radar. That’s where I come in. Here are some of the best films you can find on Netflix Instant right now that you may not already be familiar with.

The Best Movies of 2013

Another year, another best-of list. Let me start by saying that 2013 was a truly remarkable year for movies. The films released in the past year are of such an astonishing caliber that making this list proved extremely difficult. Here’s an example to illustrate my point: Jeff Nichols’ film Mud. A fantastic film, one that probably would have been been in my top 5 if it saw a wide release the previous year. Instead, it doesn’t even crack my top 10. That’s a testament to the level of quality we saw this year. Now that I’ve set the stage, here are my definitive best films of 2013.

2013 Oscar Prophecies

Author: Matt Cebreros

The 85th Academy Awards take place tomorrow evening.  Curious to know who brings home that dashing gold man in your favorite category, but you don’t feel like watching celebrities jerk each other off for three hours?  You’ve come to the right place.  These are more than just hunches.  This is prevision.  These are presages bestowed upon me from an omnipotent entity.  I won’t out my source,  but let’s just say his name rhymes with Tod.