Special: Summer Movie Awards

Well it's officially October so I think we can officially close off the summer movie season which begins May 1 and wraps up August 31. Looking at the box office numbers you can clearly see there were a lot of winners (Guardians Of The Galaxy, Transformers: Age Of Extinction) and a lot of losers (Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, A Million Ways To Die In The West) but I've put together my own awards ceremony to celebrate the summer movie season.

Most Successful Summer Movie: Guardians Of The Galaxy

Well another summer and another #1 hit for Marvel... Only no one expected this one. Guardians Of The Galaxy was considered a risk to every person that did not work for Marvel, working in house Marvel knew that it had a hit with James Gunn taking on this colourful collection of characters. It's earned nearly $650,000 worldwide and outgrossed Transformers 4 here in North America... Take that Michael Bay.

Honourable Mention: Transformers: Age Of Extinction - Transformers is over 1 Billion worldwide, but everyone saw that coming. The numbers are way lower here in North America and the rest of the world will soon realize these films have been declining in quality and the numbers will show.

Best Summer Sequel: How To Train Your Dragon 2

The original was a near perfect movie, the sequel improved on it. This was seen as a sure fire hit and a favourite among box office buffs to be the highest grossing movie of the summer, and although it seems unlikely it'll hit 200 million domestically, that by no means makes this movie a failure, the worldwide gross has been up and just like the original it will play well to the home video crowds.

Honourable Mention: X-Men: Days Of Future Past - In what seemed like a brilliant scheme to get movie-goers out to see the X-Men, Fox combined the casts of the original trilogy and first class to show us a post apocalyptic future that the only chance of survival would be to go back in time, shortly after First Class took place and put a stop to a series of events, It was a Top 5 movie at the box office and with most critics as well. You can write this off as a success.

Best Summer (Re)Launch: Guardians Of The Galaxy

Be prepared to have Guardians merchandise thrown at you in every possible direction. The movie has already spawned a sequel, which was announced after opening weekend numbers were in, a cartoon series and a crazy amount of toys and comics.

Honourable Mention: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Regardless of how you might feel about the film, it introduced the heroes in a half shell to a young wide-spread audience. It already has a successful TV series on Nick and as an old school fan, this movie wasn't as bad as everyone said it was.

Biggest Summer Disappointment: Lucy

This movie looked so great from the trailer but then you watched it and you thought to yourself "okay not as good as I would have thought... But not bad!" Then the ending came about and you retracted that statement. Lucy was always going to be a tough sell, but critics mostly liked it and it was a surprise hit taking in over 100 million domestically. But for me and everyone I spoke with that saw it, it lacked a lot, so all that potential was wasted.

Honourable Mention: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - The opposite of Lucy here, I quite liked this movie, however critics were mixed and box office receipts might as well of been non-existent. Sin City deserved better.

Biggest Summer Surprise: Edge Of Tomorrow

I'd be lying if I said Edge Of Tomorrow was on my must see list upon it's release, it was a fringe movie for me then the reviews were spectacular so I decided I'd watch it, when I finally got around to it I was obviously surprised. It was action packed, it was a fresh outlook, which surprised me since well the trailer made it seem like The Source Code. Tom Cruise can still be an action star, and in a sci-fi movie no less, a genre that has really struggled to turn out hits.

Honourable Mention: Lucy - You just can't ignore those box office numbers...

Best Summer Thrill: The Purge: Anarchy

I could not peel my eyes away from the screen during The Purge: Anarchy, after watching I realized the movie had some flaws but I could not ignore the fact that I was enthralled with watching these 4 stories cross over with each other to become one story of how people deal with a 24 hour time period where all crime is legal including murder.

Honourable Mention: Edge Of Tomorrow - Damn you Tom Cruise, why can't you just kill those aliens on your first try.

Best Summer Laugh: 22 Jump Street

This was truly the summer of sequels, for me anyways... 6 out of 16 movies I have seen as of this writing were sequels. And most have been honoured already so let's go ahead and honour the funniest movie, also a sequel, 22 Jump Street. The sequel to 21 Jump Street starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum take them to college to stop a drug ring... Yup that's almost 21 Jump Street and this is almost as funny, but it still beat out the other comedies.

Honourable Mention: Neighbours - Remember that time you heard Seth Rogen was going to be a dad and living next to a frat house whose leader is Zac Efrom? Hilarious right? It was...

Best Summer Family Affair: How To Train Your Dragon 2

In case you haven't figured it out yet I really liked this movie.

Honourable mention: Maleficent - This was the role Angelina Jolie was born to play... And she played it Maleficently... I mean magnificently. This was a fun fantasy film for the whole family that took an old tale and gave it a whole new spin. It gives me lots of faith in Disney live-action reboots after I was scratching my head at Cinderella and Jungle Book movies forthcoming before seeing this.

Worst Summer Movie: Sex Tape

I literally just finished watching this movie... I planned to review it for this Sunday special, until I watched it and realized I wouldn't be able to say that much good stuff about it, which makes for a short review, so you get this award type post instead... Thanks a lot Sex Tape.

Honourable Mention: Lucy - For a bad movie, this sure has been mentioned a lot!

Best Summer Movie: How To Train Your Dragon 2

You guys are so smart for guessing this right!

Honourable Mention: X-Men: Days Of Future Past - This movie had a lot going for it, however it did not have an adorable animated dragon. Fox step up your game, that could've been the difference maker.

Monthly Movie Madness: July 2014

Okay so maybe June was a little bit of a disappointment for me, that doesn't take away from the fact that July is sitting in the wings ready to impress... Let's check out my picks for this month...

5. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes: So I know Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was beloved by most, but not me, I found it just okay... Now my dislike of James Franco is well documented so maybe that's why? Either way, like most movies on this list, there's a problem here but I'm still willing to give it a fair chance to prove me wrong amid a very strong summer movie season, especially for sequels in my opinion thus far.

Synopsis: A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

4. Lucy: Luc Besson has had some stinkers (From Paris With Love comes to mind) and even his anticipated English version of District 13 from earlier this year (Brick Mansions) wasn't much to write home about. But Lucy looks more Taken than Revolver. In between a slew of summer blockbusters Lucy has a chance to breakout with a big star in a seemingly interesting sci-fi premise... Though I said the same about Transcendence so... Yeah... The trailer looks great though! Moving on...

Synopsis: From La Femme Nikita and The Professional to The Fifth Element, writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history. Now, Besson directs Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, an action-thriller that tracks a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.

3. Sex Tape: The marketing campaign is pushing the Bad Teacher angle in the ads for this film and although the movie did good business, I for one was disappointed by the movie and although I love Segal, his star has dropped somewhat but Diaz just had a surprise hit with The Other Woman which appealed to women so there is a good shot that Sex Tape is a success... I'm just still iffy on if I'll enjoy it or not.

Synopsis: Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) are a married couple still very much in love, but ten years and two kids have cooled the passion. To get it back, they decide - why not? - to make a video of themselves trying out every position in THE JOY OF SEX in one marathon three-hour session. It seems like a great idea, until they discover that their most private video has gone public. In a panic, they begin a wild night of adventure - tracking down leads, roping in friends, duping Annie's boss - all to reclaim their video, their reputation, their sanity, and, most importantly, their marriage.

2. The Purge: Anarchy: Unlike Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, I haven't seen the first movie in this franchise, but had it not of been on my to watch list already, Ethan Hawke is in The Purge so of course I'm going to watch it, the trailer for Anarchy would have been enough to get me excited and watch the original.

Synopsis: The Purge is a night where all crime is legal and all hospitals, fire stations and police stations in the United States are closed down for 12 hours. A couple, Shane and Liz (Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez), are driving home to their kids when their car runs out of gas just as the Purge commences, and they flee from masked attackers on motorcycles and minibikes. Meanwhile, Leo (Frank Grillo) goes out into the streets to get revenge on the man (Brandon Keener) who killed his son, and a mother and daughter, Eva and Cali (Carmen Ejogo and Zoe Soul), run into their night after an unknown group of well-equipped assailants break into their tenement. The five people meet up as they attempt to survive the night in Los Angeles.

1. Video Games: The Movie: I've never ranked a documentary #1 before... In fact I may not have actually ranked a limited release #1 before but come on... Documentary about video games from Zach Braff of Scrubs fame? Sign me up!

Synopsis: From executive producer Zach Braff and director Jeremy Snead, VIDEO GAMES: THE MOVIE is an epic feature length documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of video games from nerd niche to multi-billion dollar industry. Narrated by Sean Astin and featuring in-depth interviews with the godfathers who started it all, the icons of game design, and the geek gurus who are leading us into the future, VIDEO GAMES: THE MOVIE is a celebration of gaming from Atari to Xbox and an eye-opening look at what lies ahead.

Honourable mentions: Wish I Was Here, Boyhood, Deliver Us From Evil