This blog post is dedicated to a very good friend of ours, Joel – the Top “Top Ten” list-maker. I do this for three main reasons.

1 – You were the first (and only so far) to ever dedicate a whole blog post to me.

2 – You not only share our love for good movies, you’ve probably suggested the majority of the great movies we’ve watched and come to love over the years.

3 – I’m sure you’ve always wanted someone to dedicate a whole blog post to you so here you go. I hope all my readers (who don’t already know you) go to your blog and discover all the top movies, books, and music they’ve been missing out on.

Since I already did a movie post just the other day, here’s our list with a few words. I blogged about most of them already earlier in the year so I just linked to those posts if you want to go back and see what I already said about them.

Without further ado, here is our

Top 10 Movies we watched in 2014

1. Dances with Wolves

Yes, this is on the top of our list even if that suprises you. We both agreed we enjoyed watching this one (and the next) the most this year. Blogged a little bit about that here. I don’t remember if you said you’ve ever seen this but I think you should give it a go, or a re-go. We accidentally got the extended version and while we had to break it up over a couple nights, it was enriching.

2. Short Term 12

I thought I blogged about this but now I can’t find it. Like #1, we really enjoyed watching Short Term Twelve – thank you again for another great recommendation!

The word that comes to mind when I think of this movie is: Healing. We all have many wounds and scars and we carry these around with us. Sometimes we even become paralyzed by these pains. Short Term Twelve was about healing these wounds, fixing what is broken, and re-awakening to the good that is in the world. Aside from all that, I really loved the whole style of the movie. The color, the music, the clothes, the way it was filmed. Everything. Bravo.

3. Interstellar

Mentioned with my other movie update this week. We are anxious to hear your thoughts on it after you watch it.

4. Unbroken based on one of the best books I’ve ever read – Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Also already shared a few thoughts here but I might have more to come on it. I liked the movie a lot but I’d recommend reading the whole book more.

5. 12 Years a Slave

Blogged about here. Another one that was hard to watch but was incredibly powerful. A “must-see”.

6. All Is Lost

I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t make it through this one but my husband was stronger (and less tired that night) and stuck with Redford the whole way through. He says, “It was slow but a realistic depiction of being hopelessly lost at sea. The no dialogue and only one character was a little strange at first but it worked really well..made you feel the depth of his loneliness.”

7. The Book Thief

Another one on the 15 movies we recently watched post. I can’t remember, have you seen it or read the book? I loved the main character but my favorite was the father.

8. To the Wonder

Blogged about this briefly back in March. Another Terrance Malick Masterpiece. I don’t think we would have appreciated this as much (or at all) had we not already become completely enamored by The Tree Of Life. There are so many interesting things about this one. I have to say the character of the priest was my favorite here as I can relate to his struggles between going through the actions of the Faith and truly living and breathing Faith.

8. The New World

Blogged about here also. Wait, you might have noticed I have two number 8’s. (Or at least you did now.) Why is that? Well, Joel, it’s because my husband and I couldn’t agree which of the two Malick movies we liked better. He liked To the Wonder better but I honestly enjoyed The New World more. I think there was more joy in this one, I loved Pocahontas’s free-spirit and innocence.

9. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Yes, I also just wrote about this one the other day as well. If you pick any from our list, I hope you choose this one. If you can’t find it at the library, I’ll get it from Netflix for you again.

Like with Unbroken, I really enjoyed this movie but if you had to pick, go for the book! (Which I also declared my love for here.)

10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Husband’s pick: “One of the best super hero movie I’ve watched in a long time, years even.”

Runner Up:

Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow

My husband saw this (without me!) with you (right?) but I have yet to see it. He said he was on the “edge” of his seat the whole time with suspense so I’m looking forward to it. What did you think of this one?

Top 5 Family Movies

And because I know you like a good family movie like we do, here are the top 5 movies we watched with the kids that everyone enjoyed.

1. Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog

Watched this together as a family back in February and shared a few thoughts here. Add this one to your list for sure!

It’s a wonderful adventure and survival story about a boy and his dog so of course it’s going to be good. After watching this it reminded me how important it is to teach our children not only how to avoid getting into hard situations but – even more importantly – how to survive them when it happens. If you are looking for a good family movie I’d definitely recommend this one.

2. Tarzan

Again, thank you for a good suggestion! I’d watched this back when it came out and loved it just as much and more. We all love the Tarzan music and play it on Spotify frequently.

3. Heaven is for Real

From the 15 movies we recently watched post. I’m really curious what you’d think of this movie. I think we had similar thoughts about the book. I admit I was a little hesitant to watch it as a family without knowing what sort of crazy ideas I might expose the kids too. I still kind of struggle with it. I want the kids to believe in Heaven and want to go there, of course. But I also don’t want to give them a watered-down or gimmicky view of it. Yet, there’s something about Colton’s pure innocence and the way he describes Heaven that makes me pause and wonder if I’m being too “scientific” about it and need to be more child-like. I’ll be eager to hear your review and hear how your kids react to it.

4. The Incredibles

Yes, from the last post I guess we watched all the good ones at the end of the year this time.

5. Monsters University

Briefly mentioned here, we really enjoyed this one together as well.

Runner Up:

The Parent Trap (1961)

This was one of my favorite childhood movies so I was extremely excited and happy to introduce it to our daughter this year. Of course, she loved it and it was so much fun watching it again with her and enjoying it through her eyes. Once my goddaughter is of age, I’d love to have a movie date with her and this one!

 

Whew. There you go. I get lazy to make this list but once I do I’m glad. It’s fun to look back on the year and recollect on what we watched and how it affected us and followed us through the year. We both feel that this year’s list is not as great as the Top Ten Movies We Watched in 2013 list but it was still a good one. We look forward to your list for new movies to add to the 2015 movie list. Thanks again for all your great suggestions, reviews, and enjoyable film commentary!

 

{I’ve included my Amazon Affiliate links in this post in case you or anyone else reading this decides to try out a movie from our list. Amazon sends our family a few pennies from any purchases made via these links that we use to support our movie-watching addiction and sometimes feed our children if there’s any left over. Also, you might like to know that there is a special promotion going on now – you can Join Amazon Prime and watch your favorite movies & TV Shows with a Free Trial Now!}