Having just tied a tidy little bow on 2014 with our Top Ten Movies of the Year article, there is still always that sense that you missed something. Still in the midst of compiling that infamous Top 100 list, we took to scourging through some of those that slunk under the radar for one reason or another as well as a controversial new release and the first (surprisingly good) 2015 of the year. So buckle up because where Weekly Review‘s going, we don’t need roads (primarily because it’s a website.) 

ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY (2014)

Up at 30,000 feet and on those marginally-larger-than-domestic-flights screens, the more down-the-middle the film, the better. So I thought I’d knock out a 2014 family film that had most people shrugging and saying, “Eh, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.” So I guess this one’s on me and them both. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is just about as bad as I thought it would be. It’s almost as bad as its terrible, horrible, no good, very bad name. Utterly stifling the comedic talent of Steve Carrell, this “comedy for the whole family” has as few little snickers as it does laugh out loud moments. In fact, I don’t remember laughing once. It’s comedy by committee, paying a blind eye to the many, many missteps it takes along the way. It’s a mess of stale, cliched physical comedy with a hackneyed message so elementary and diluted that it’s hard to not scoff. (D) 

THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU (2014)

An enviable collection of comedians align for This Is Where I Leave You, a dark dramedy about a family assembled to sit Shiva after their father passes away. Rose Bryne joins Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver and Corey Stoll with Kathryn Hahn, Timothy Oliphant, Connie Britton andsam shepard Jane Fonda rounding out the cast. Working from a script from Jonathan Trooper – who adapted from his own novel – the variable Shawn Levy is in his element, gently parsing clever comedic beats into the earnest atmosphere of familial woes. It never quite goes the distance – particularly with Fey’s character arc – and some of the bits land awkwardly but as far as general release dramedies go, you could fare far worse. Also, Adam Driver. (C+)

PREDESTINATION (2015)

Time travel movies are easy plot-hole kerfuffle territory and Predestination has its fair share of gapers and yet, it’s kind of magnificent. Surely the first act could have been handled with more grace and, frankly, felt less mandatory than it does but once you start to piece together the puzzle (something that happened for me far before the movie found it necessary to make every plain-faced obvious) the experience begins to unfold into something explicitly rewarding. Add an understated performance from Ethan Hawke and an uncommon intelligence and you have a product that’s well worth a watch, gapers and all. (B-)

THE INTERVIEW (2014)

Somehow, The Interview has become one of the most important, talked about movies of the year and for good reason. It became a battleground for freedom; the metaphorical doorstep to international censorship the likes of which even Mitt Romney was willing to speak against. It’s a damn shame that the actual movie – the one behind all this “we’ll nuke ya” drama – isn’t very good. In it, James Franco is on fire but in all the wrong kinds of ways. Like a self-immolating junker ten feet too far from an extinguisher. His melon-headed character is obnoxious and petty and occupies so much of the breathing room of the film that it’s unable to show any other signs of life. As a big fan of the Seth Rogan-Evan Goldberg fast-food combo, I thoroughly expected myself to jeer through the dumbness of another This is the End. Instead, I just got honey-potted. (D+)

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter