The MovieByte Podcast #120: Word Dyslexia

The MovieByte Podcast

TJ and Joe review the notable films of 2014 — both the good and the bad. They also run down their favorite and least favorite films. It’s always a lot of fun to look back over the landscape of the year to see what panned out and what did not.

Show Notes & Links

• TJ’s Top Films of 2014

  Making a top films of the year list is hard. These things are so subjective, not to mention I have to remember my feelings about the various films I’ve seen this year — and I see lots of films. It’s made somewhat easier by the fact that if I have strong feelings about a film one way or the other, it tends to stick and or come back more quickly when I look over the list of films that were released this year.

• The LEGO Movie — Review

  When I was a kid I loved to play with my LEGOs. I built so many things with LEGOs that I couldn’t possibly remember them all.

• Episode 79: Spaceship!

  Be careful! Chad might unleash “The Kragle”!

• Noah — Review

  Noah is a film that is sure to make people mad.

• Episode 86: Tell Good Stories

  The episode you’ve been waiting for! The epic conversation about ‘Noah’.

• Episode 91: Hello Father

  Maleficent is not receiving a lot of praise from critics, but Chad and TJ both think this is a little unfair.

• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes — Review

  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the latest in the reboot of the Apes franchise. I really love it for a few reasons.

• Episode 97: Don’t Confuse Me With the Facts

  Join TJ and Clark to talk about one of the better summer block busters: ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’.

• X-Men: Days of Future Past — Review

  Mutation. It is the key to this franchise’s evolution. Normally this process is slow, taking dozens of films, but every once in a while, a franchise’s mutation takes a giant leap forward.

• Episode 90: Jabba Origin Story

  Join TJ and Clark to discuss ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ because there’s a lot here to like!

• Episode 98: Love it Or Hate it

  Join the conversation on Snowpiercer

• The Maze Runner — Review

  I went to see The Maze Runner with no expectations. I saw a trailer two or three times in the last season that promoted this young adult (YA) dystopian sci-fi, but other than the trailers, I didn’t have prior knowledge of the film.

• How to Train Your Dragon 2 — Review

  You know those films that all your friends love, so you feel a little emotional pressure to like them too? How to Train Your Dragon and its sequel are those films for me.

• Episode 93: These G.I. Joes Were About To Die

  TJ persuaded former co-host and co-founder Joe Darnell to join him to talk about ‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’.

• Episode 107: The Story of Batman

  Liam Neeson is back, and he’s got a gun. And he’s taking ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’.

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier — Review

  So how do you make a Captain America movie for a world that is moving very fast down a road that is in many ways, for better or for worse, a very unicultural place? Films made in the U.S. are no longer released just in the U.S. (and vice versa). And yet Marvel has here a character named Captain America. How do they make that work? It’s genius really: they leverage something that is bothering most of us as Americans, and that has relevance to the rest of the world as well.

• Episode 85: Trust Issues

  Chad and TJ are joined by Fizz to ostensibly talk about ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ — and they certainly do, but that of course means that they have to discuss the larger Marvel Universe as well. This is, of course, a lot of fun, and a conversation you won’t want to miss!

• Episode 105: You a Bad Man, Sir

  Hang out with TJ and Joe for a discussion of ‘The November Man’ — which both TJ and Joe found to be a pretty poor excuse for a film all things considered.

• Episode 101: Intellectual: The Thing That I am Not

  Lucy over-promised with it’s trailers, and under-delivered in the theater.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) — Review

  I expected to hate this film. And to be fair, I had every reason to believe I would

• Episode 103: Water Park Ride

  Cowabunga, dude! The heroes in a half shell are brining you some turtle power this week! Listen in to find out the good and the bad of the Jonathan Liebesman directed ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’.

• Edge of Tomorrow — Review

  It sounds a little dull — Tom Cruise repeating the same day over and over and over and over and over… and over again. But you must trust me, this film is anything but dull.

• Episode 92: Time To Start Over

  Edge of tomorrow may have been about reseting the day every single time, but it was anything but boring.

• The Monuments Men — Review

  I believe a film like Monuments Men is important and has cultural significance, or at least it can have. And I certainly believe that preserving the art of the ages is a worthy endeavor.

• The Giver — Review

  The Giver is the first in four novels by Lois Lowry that have earned a place on such a list in America, Australia, and Canada. And only now, after 21 years of popular bookshelf demand, The Giver makes an appearance in cinemas.

• Episode 104: Hannah Montana Kids

  Critics don’t like it, it didn’t get good marketing, and it hasn’t made a boatload of money. So now despite all that the question before us, is ‘The Giver’ a good film?

• Guardians of the Galaxy — Review

  That awkward moment when a character who said only three (well okay, five, technically) words throughout the entirety of the film had way more character development than any character in Man of Steel. This is the power of the Marvel creative team at this particular juncture in history.

• Episode 100: Is This Real Life?

  ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is here and it’s awesome! Believe the hype.

• The Judge — Review

  Robert Downey Jr. plays hot shot lawyer Hank Palmer who has (seemingly?) never defended an innocent man. And he knows it.

• Episode 109: Denzel Fu

  ‘The Judge’ on the other hand was pretty fantastic.

• Birdman — Review

  What is film? More specifically, what do films, or the folks who make them, want to accomplish with their film?

• Episode 116: It Felt Purposeless

  TJ and Joe didn’t get to watch the movie they wanted to watch because it was in limited release, so they watched ‘Birdman’ instead.

• Episode 111: Better Love Story Than Twilight

  Join TJ, Joe, and Fizz to discuss what is possibly one of the most disturbing films of the year, but also almost certainly one of the most well crafted films of the year too.

• Episode 106: A Little Taste of Home

  TJ and Joe talk about food! No, really! That’s because this week, they had the great delight of reviewing the latest offering from Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, and Charlotte Le Bon: ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’.

• Big Hero 6 — Review

  You guys remember Wreck-it Ralph? It was a film by Disney Animation Studios in 2012, and in many ways very much in the same line of work as the latest offering from Disney, Big Hero 6.

• Episode 113: Diagnosis, Puberty

  Find out about TJ and Joe’s differing view on ‘Big Hero 6’ — even if they both liked it.

• A Most Wanted Man — Review

  If you were looking for a modern spy thriller with lots of bangs and explosions, a lot of high paced action scenes and over the top explosions and bombs going off in all directions, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this film is not the right one for you.

• Episode 99: We Are Here To Study Your Brain

  TJ, Joe, and Clark discuss Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final leading role in ‘A Most Wanted Man’.

• Episode 110: Lenox Square

  Find out all you need to know about ‘Kill The Messenger’!

• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 — Review

  To say that Katniss is troubled might, in fact, be the biggest understatement of the year.

• Episode 114: Anti-Captain America

  TJ and Fizz discuss what’s good and bad about ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1’.

• Interstellar — Review

  I have a confession to make. I think Christopher Nolan is one of the more highly overrated directors of our time.

• Episode 118: Bratty Version of Anakin

  One thing is clear, everyone wanted the movie the trailer for ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ promised us, but that was not what was given.

• Episode 119: Benjamin Button Legolas

  And now for the review of the Trilogy based on a book, which is a prequel to the trilogy based on three books! This week, TJ, Joe, and Clark review ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies’.