Shooflypie

I saw only 10 movies in the theater this year and only 9 of those were official 2014 releases. I didn't see The Grand Budapest Hotel or Boyhood . I didn't see Birdman or Gone Girl . I wanted to but I either didn't get around to them or they didn't come close to me. I will see them. Anyway, here are my five favorites of what I did see, plus a bonus... 1. Guardians of the Galaxy - I'll admit I was skeptical when Marvel put this on their slate. It seemed like an odd choice. When the first trailer came out, I got excited. Really excited. Then the movie finally came out and it was awesome. It is full of heart and humor. Chris Pratt is great as Peter Quill. Rocket Raccoon and Groot worked perfectly onscreen. The soundtrack is the glue that holds the whole thing together. The movie had such a perfect Star Wars feel to it and I left the theater with a grin on my face. So. Much. Fun. 2. The Lego Movie - Speaking of Chris Pratt and fun, I loved this movie as well. I w...

Michael Chabon did it. He did it in 2000, at Christmas and during the week after. He did it with his fantastic novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay . I was never the same afterwards. I've always been a reader and from a very early age. I devoured books. I reread favorites like The Hobbit ; in fact, I read an illustrated version of that novel so much in elementary school that my copy fell apart. I read series; at one point, I had read all 60 or so Hardy Boys books that had been published by 1980 or 1981. I was a library volunteer in middle school and checked out as many books as I could. When I was in college in the early 90s, I would take a weekend to plow through a book, ignoring my homework. By the time the late 90s rolled around, I wasn't reading as much as I had. I was spending much of my free reading time devouring comics, another lifelong passion. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay changed all that. I don't remember when I first heard a...