Lets just say it: 2014 was a crazy good year for movies. Even now, with less than three weeks left in the year, 2014 refuses to let us ago without offering up still a few more gems. Between now and January 31, there's Mr. Turner, Two Days, One Night, Selma, Big Eyes, Unbroken, The Gambler, Into the Woods, American Sniper, and finally A Most Violent Year, all still set to come out. Whew, what a lineup. Heck, what a year. Be it dramas like Boyhood or Whiplash, adult thrillers like Gone Girl or Nightcrawler, offbeat comedies like Birdman or Inherent Vice, challenging science fiction like Interstellar or Snowpiercer, or whatever other type of film that you can think of, 2014 was stuffed to the gills with quality cinema. In fact, theres probably even an argument to be made that perhaps the year was too generous, that while its undoubtedly awesome to have had so many great films be released, such an excess of quality leads to a problem of priorities: in a sea of great cinema, where does one possibly know to start? This is why its always helpful to highlight which movies were released during the year that might have been slightly overpraised. In a year that was slathered in 4-star reviews, gushing Tweets, and poster quotes that would make Shakespeare blush, it was inevitable that at least some of the years film would wind up receiving slightly excessive adulation. Collected are ten of the most overrated films of the year, judged purely on the basis of the amount of acclaim that they received vs. their actual level of quality (sorry, no Transformers: Age of Extinction or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here). Some of these movies are good, albeit not as good as they have been cranked up to be; others, well, arent so good, contrary to popular opinion. Yet all of these movies deserve, at the very least, credit for getting audiences excited, as well as igniting many a genuine conversation about their merits as works of art. In this day and age of empty excess and sensory overload, thats something worth celebrating.
