It wasn't an easy choice, but Snowpiercer is my favorite film of 2014. Although the film never received a wide release here in the US due to a dispute between the director and Harvey Weinstein, it was able to find an audience on DVD, Netflix and video On Demand. This is great because Snowpiercer deserves to be seen.  It's one of the most original films I've seen in years and it's easily one of the best Sci-fi films of the decade.  It's stylish, beautifully shot and features tons of modern day commentary on class warfare.  Director Bong Joon-ho is one of the best directors working today and I can't wait to see what he does next.

This is what I love about movies.  Sometimes a movie comes along and catches you off guard.  Whiplash isn't one of the many films I was anticipating this year and the plot of the film isn't something I would normally be interested in. The fact that it's #2 on my list of favorite films of 2014 proves how great of a film it really is.  Whiplash is a fast, energetic film with superb performances by Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons.  It's a film about striving for perfection no matter what the cost.  Whiplash is one of the films I will be talking about well into 2015. More than likely, most of my conversations about movies will start with me saying, "Have you seen Whiplash yet?"

Films that are adapted from a book rarely capture the same essence of the source material.  Gone Girl is the exception.  Even as somebody who has read the book, the film kept me guessing the whole time. Having the writer of the book, Gillian Flynn, also write the screenplay worked out perfectly.  Of course, the fact that Gone Girl is directed by David Fincher didn't hurt either.  He's one of the very best directors the industry has to offer and a personal favorite of mine.  Fincher gets two of the most outstanding performances of the year out of Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.  Gone Girl is truly one of the must-see films of the year.

After I get the chance to see Interstellar for the second time, it might just rank as my favorite film of 2014.  There's so much to love about Interstellar that it's actually hard to put into words.  It's been over a month since I saw the film and I can honestly say that not a day goes by where I don't think about it in some way.  The themes and imagery just really stuck with me.  Interstellar is a spectacular film with tons of weight and depth to it.  Christopher Nolan really is a master of storytelling.  Somehow he was able to weave a personal story of love and fatherhood into a big budget space movie.  The man is quite simply a genius.

Chances are you're not going to find the The Babadook at your local theater and that's too bad because it's one the best horror films I've seen in years. It's well acted and directed. The film excels at creating a stark, creepy atmosphere. The cinematography is also great. Every frame is filled with deep, dark blacks and bright whites, giving the film a surreal almost monotone look. There's also great use of depth-of-field-techniques. The Babadook is about a single mother, played by Essie Davis, trying to balance a job, a problem child and a mysterious book that might have brought a demon into their house. Essie Davis gives one of the best performances of the year as a frazzled mother at her wits' end. Davis' performance really brings to mind Jack Nicholson's performance in The Shining. Like Jack Torrance, The Babadook shows a woman who is slowly unraveling. The film also explores themes of loss and the fears of motherhood. I urge anybody that loves horror to track this gem down.

Now here's an interesting case study for cinephiles.  Edge of Tomorrow should have been a box office hit.  It featured an A-List actor in Tom Cruise, it was rated PG-13 and showcased tons of action. What could go wrong?  Well something did because Edge of Tomorrow tanked (domestically speaking at least).  That's unfortunate because Tomorrow is a really good film.  As a gamer, I loved the Groundhog Day like concept of the film.  The characters must die over and over again in order to get things right and fight off an alien invasion.  In Emily Blunt, Tomorrow also boasts one of the stronger female empowering performances you'll see in a film.  There are numerous theories as to why Edge of Tomorrow failed.  Some blame Tom Cruise fatigue, citing the Sci-fi dud that was Oblivion the year before, others point to the generic name.  Whatever the reason, Edge of Tomorrow deserves to find its audience on DVD and other formats.

Birdman is a marvel of filmmaking.  The entire film feels like one continuous take.  We glide around with the actors as they make their way around the theater - from backstage, to the dressing rooms and even out on to the streets of New York City.  This gives the film a very live-wire feel, almost like a real play where there is no take two. There are a few cuts, but only a trained eye will find them.  Most of the scenes really are one take and the acting seems all the more genuine because of it. Michael Keaton is the real revelation here.  He plays a washed up actor who once played a superhero named Birdman in a series of popular comic book movies.  After the Birdman films, his career never really took off, hence why he's now writing, directing and starring in his own play.  If the plot sounds familiar, it should.  It's all very meta, and the film expects you to make the link between Birdman and Batman, the actual superhero Keaton famously played.  My only problem with Birdman was a drum track that was more distracting than anything else.

In Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal gives the best performance of his career.  He plays Lou Bloom, a driven amateur videographer that sells gruesome footage from crime scenes to the local news. Gyllenhaal plays Bloom like an addict looking for his next high.  Except in this case the fix is getting that perfect bloody shot and selling it for top dollar. Gyllenhaal plays this beautifully, shedding 30 pounds for the role.  He's gaunt, pale and wide-eyed.  Bloom is also clearly insane and doesn't know when to stop once he falls down the rabbit hole.

Even the most mainstream moviegoer has heard about Boyhood and the story behind the making of the film.  The idea was to film a young boy from the age of 5 all the way until he turns 18.  Once a year, all the actors would get back together and film a few scenes.  It could have been a gimmick, but the end result is a resounding success. Boyhood almost has a documentary feel to the film.  We are seeing small snippets from this child's life.  Often times they aren't even important events.  This is the beauty of the film, but also where it fails to reach the lofty expectations (for me) that most people have bestowed upon it. Boyhood is trying to show us how even the smallest moments in one's life can shape the person we become.  The down side of that is the film lacks focus and there are truly no traces of an actual plot.  I really enjoyed the film and I believe people should see it just because it's a fantastic cinematic experiment.  For that reason alone, Boyhood deserves its place in my top 10.

The Raid is the best action franchise going today.  Hands down. That's right, an Indonesian film franchise directed by a Welsh guy (Gareth Evans) is the best pure action franchise you will find anywhere on the planet. Where the first film was linear in its story, The Raid 2 amps things up. Our hero, undercover cop Rama, is now thrown into the deadly world of an Indonesian crime ring.  A place where cops and gangsters are one and the same.  The Raid features some of the best fight scenes I've ever witnessed.  The choreography is so tight it's almost like a dance. If you're into action, I see no reason why you shouldn't give The Raid 2 a chance.  At least before Hollywood ruins it with their own presumably watered down version.

Yes, I'm a sucker for action.  It's been that way for as long as I can remember.  For some reason, Hollywood has forgotten how to make a pure action movie though.  If it's not a superhero, a Transformer or Vin Diesel driving a car faster than humanly possible, it's usually done poorly.  Enter John Wick.  Wick feels like the 80's action films I grew up with.  Light on story, heavy on bullet count.  What a lot of the action films today are missing is a badass character.  In Keanu Reeves, John Wick has that in spades.  He's just plain cool.  From the car he drives, to the clothes he wears, you just want to be John Wick.  Wick features some of the slickest shootout scenes you will see in a movie all year and the pulse-pounding Nightclub scene is probably one of my top 5 scenes of the year.

The Theory of Everything tells the amazing story of Stephen Hawking and his battle with a disease that took everything from him but his genius and his desire to survive.  The film is just as much about Hawking's wife Jane as she stands by him and becomes his primary caretaker.  Eddie Redmayne gives a transformative performance as Hawking.  He's a lock for an Oscar nomintation.  Felicity Jones, who plays Jane, is also worthy of a nomination.  I don't think I've ever seen her in anything, but I was really impressed with her performance.  The Theory of Everything is a perfect example of how powerful love can be.

The last two Planet of the Apes films should be a template Hollywood uses when creating sequels/prequels to beloved franchises.  In Dawn, we follow Caesar as he tries to build a society of Apes away from humanity.  Caesar steals the film.  Or should I say Andy Serkis steals the film?  Serkis has made a career out of motion capture.  He should have been nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Gollum in Lord of the Rings.  As great as Gollum was, his work here tops it.  He brings such life to Caesar.  You can see Serkis in every line of Caesar's face.  It's also in the eyes, they're so expressive that Caesar doesn't need a lot of dialogue for us to know how he feels or what he wants. My only beef with Dawn is that I wish the human counterparts were as well written and fleshed out as the Apes.

World War II films were all the rage a few decades ago.  Then Saving Private Ryan came along and set the bar pretty high, essentially putting WWII on the bench.  There really aren't many original stories left to be told about the greatest generation ever.  That being said, there's never really been a World War II film that focuses on a tanker unit.  Fury does an excellent job of showing the tight confines of a tank and the even tighter bonds that are formed between the soldiers that call it home.  Lead by Brad Pitt, Fury has one of the very best ensemble casts of the year.  Many will brush Fury off as a run-of-the-mill war film, but they would be doing themselves a disservice.  The climactic scene alone is worth the time and money.

I'm not a huge fan of the X-Men franchise.  I've never read any of the comic books and I'm not even sure I've seen all of the films.  I watched X-Men: First Class a few years ago because of some of the additions to the cast, mainly Michael Fassbender (one of my favorite actors) Jennifer Lawrence and James McAvoy.  I was really impressed and began anticipating Days of Future Past.  I was not disappointed.  Days of Future Past is right in my cinematic wheel house as it is essentially a time travel film.  Days of Future Past also includes my favorite scene of the year.  I won't spoil it, but it perfectly uses the song "Time In a Bottle."