Here’s the one thing you can say for sure about critics: Whether or not you trust their taste, you can rest assured that they’ve seen more movies than you. We critics see anywhere from 150 to 250 films in any given year, and we write or talk about every single one of them. For us, there is no “I want to see that, so I will” mentality. No matter what it is, we must see it. It’s our profession. It is the life we chose.
As such, you can trust us when we talk about underrated films. These may or may not be the best films of the year (I only have one film that overlapped with my own Best Films of 2014 list), but these are pretty good little nuggets that you may not have heard about. If a critic can do anything for your life, let them recommend a smaller, better movie that you may not have heard of. Or, if I may be so bold, to allow you to reconsider a film that you have heard of, but didn’t hear too much positivity on. At the very least, let me step forward and defend a maligned film that many critics said was terrible, but is in fact an enjoyable entertainment.
Check Out: William Bibbiani’s Picks for the Most Underrated Films of 2014
The following list of 11 films from 2014 is largely made up of good-to-pretty-good flicks (and one or two very good films) that you either haven’t heard about, didn’t bother to see, or was roundly derided by the critical community. I am here to cite the underrated goodies, dear readers. Consider me.
Slideshow: The Most Underrated Films of 2014 – A Second Opinion
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
The Most Underrated Films of 2014: Second Opinion
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Edge of Tomorrow (a.k.a. Live, Die, Repeat)
I already wrote about Edge of Tomorrow on my Best Films of 2014 list, so I will not repeat myself here about how cool it is. I will say that this awesome and clever sci-fi action film was considered a flop when it came out, and slinked from theaters, eventually embarrassed to be trumped by garbage like Transformers: Age of Extinction. It was the best action film of the summer, and people stayed away in droves. It might count as this year's White House Down, another terrific action flick that people ignored.
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John Wick
I suspect that people missed action films like Edge of Tomorrow and John Wick because of their stars. In the current marketplace, known characters and known properties matter more than performers; strictly speaking, does it matter who plays Thor? So when a Keanu Reeves films came out in the Fall, people just shrugged it off. Pity. John Wick is a badass and wicked film with great fight choreography, and a central character that could easily work his way into some sort of action canon. Also, it features a really fun setting with future potential: a hotel made exclusively for high-powered assassins, where no one is allowed to kill out of professional courtesy.
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Vampire Academy
I don't want to defend this film too passionately, but it certainly requires defense. When Vampire Academy, directed by Mark Waters, attempts to build a mythology and mix us up in its labyrinthine plot, it's dull claptrap. But Vampire Academy has, despite its plotting, a lot of witty characters, snappy dialogue, and a fun, sex-positive view of young women that forces them to emerge as relatable and interesting. In an era when teen girls are often treated as weepy, longing romantic saps (see anything from Twilight to The Fault in Our Stars to If I Stay, etc. etc.), seeing a few characters that are witty and interesting is a salve.
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Grand Piano
Imagine Joel Shumacher's Phone Booth, but instead of a phone booth, it's a stage with an audience in front of it. This film was the type of clever closed-box thriller that so rarely succeeds, but manages to fly in the hands of director Eugenio Mira. Elijah Wood plays a concert pianist in the middle of a concert who is told, via a telephone earpiece, that he is in the crosshairs of a killer sniper (John Cusack) who requires that he play a certain symphony just perfectly. To what end, we will have to wait to learn. One setting, few actors, and a lot of excellent tension.
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Oculus
Ghost stories are the hottest horror subgenre currently lurching its way through theaters, and the bulk of them are anywhere from just plain to just plain bad. Oculus was the best ghost story I've seen in years. It was about a brother and a sister who have to do battle with a haunted mirror that might have killed their parents years before. The mirror causes hallucinations, so what is real is constantly in question. The film was also told in the past and the present simultaneously. And somehow, director Mike Flanagan balances several realities and several time frames perfectly. It's a pretty masterful little film.
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Draft Day
I can't rightly explain why I reacted so strongly to Ivan Reitman's Draft Day, a comedic drama about, well, drafting football players. Maybe it has something to do with Reitman's boldly commercial filmmaking style, a style I grew up with. This is a film that took the most boring aspect of organized sport – the back-office deals – and turned it into an exhilarating and funny triumph. I know nothing about the football draft, but after this movie, it seems like something thrilling.
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Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
We were all dreading this one. It looked from the poster to be one of those dumb, badly-made straight-to-video films that you only ever see for sale in drug stores. Imagine our delight when Legends of Oz turns out to be... not terrible. I'm not going to call it a classic or anything, but when something looks to be at the bottom of the lake, but ends up floating on a string of actually funny gags, some funny voice work, a plot that actually kind of chugs along, and a legitimately sweet song sung by a smitten marshmallow man, then it must be noted. It's too bad that the next actor to play The Joker has already been cast, because Martin Short proves he would have been excellent in the role with his performance as The Jester.
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All Cheerleaders Die
Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson's All Cheerleaders Die is a bit of a mess, but it's the kind of mess I enjoy, and it's the kind of mess you should perhaps seek out. It has several plots, a dull climax, and a few false starts. But, like Vampire Academy, this one is loaded with catty, dynamic, weirdo characters who are all – get this – having fun with being monsters. Also, Lucky McKee is one of the most feminist of all filmmakers, so when his cheerleaders become monsters, it feels less like exploitation for the male gaze, and more like an actual female empowerment saga.
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The Signal
The buzz for The Signal was grand. The reviews for The Signal were mixed. The memory of The Signal is practically gone. I continue to say now what I said at the time: This low-budget sci-fi film is possessed of a fast, unique style that belies the filmmakers' talent. Director William Eubank may not have made the perfect film (the alien kidnapping/killer prosthetic legs plot makes no sense whatsoever), but this is one of the more striking declarations of talent I have seen in a while. I hope he lives up to his promise.
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Earth to Echo
This generation has its version of E.T., and yet this generation didn't see Earth to Echo. This was not just a found-footage film about local kids who befriend a friendly robot from space who requires their help to go home, but a go-kids polemic of the highest order. The characters were what made Earth to Echo really shine. They came across as real kids with real kid problems and real kid reactions. And it was free of the Spielbergian affect of something like, say, Super 8. It was also clever about the way it incorporated modern tech into the storytelling, something many screenwriters are still figuring out.
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As Above, So Below
Found footage again? Horror again? Who cares at this point, right? Well here's the thing you may have missed about As Above, So Below: It's not really a horror movie. Indeed, this seems more like a low-budget Indiana Jones-style adventure more than it does a let's-pick-off-our-boring-characters-one-by-one horror cheapie. Also, the lead character, Scarlett Marlowe (played by Perdita Weeks) seems like she should head up her own series of movies. She's plucky, smart, and stays calm rather than squealing her way through the events of the film.
