The raw genre intensity of Rene Naufahu's The Last Saint becomes undeniable when it introduces wide-eyed techno-loving druglord Pinball, played with joyful gusto by a ripped-as Joe Naufahu. Kiwi cinema is far too bereft of these kinds of larger-than-life psychos, and this one's a doozy. P for Powerful.
Edge of Tomorrow - Squish
One of the coolest conceits in this underrated sci-fi actioner is how the hero can only perform his outlandish heroic actions after practicing them beforehand and repeatedly dying.
When Tom Cruise first attempts to escape his platoon by rolling under a moving jeep, he is promptly run over and killed, causing Bill Paxton's Sergeant to legitimately exclaim "What the hell were you thinking?!". It's a great action-film subverting moment in a movie filled with them.
What We Do In The Shadows - Flat Meeting
Giving a New Zealand audience the confidence to laugh in a Kiwi comedy is one of the toughest feats in this industry - just ask the makers of Send a Gorilla. What was so impressive about WWDITS is that it inspired that confidence straight out of the gate, and especially in this early comedic set-piece surrounding unfulfilled flat responsibilities. It's a great showcase for the film's hilarious secret weapon, Jonathan Brugh, to whom Taika Waititi delivers perhaps the movie's funniest line: "It's not a flat meeting about how cool you are."
Interstellar - Landing the Lander
The authenticity of Interstellar was greatly enhanced by the way Christopher Nolan chose to portray its spaceship scenes: predominantly via 'onboard' cameras a la most of the NASA footage we've ever seen. The effect was particularly great when Matthew McConaughey's Cooper is manually piloting the smaller 'lander' craft to the surface of the water planet - the camera stays inside the cockpit for the entire rocky descent, until the very last moment when a sudden single exterior shot shows the craft violently touching down. This brief moment absolutely blew me away.
The Dark Horse - The Tourney
A less interesting version of this film would've hung all its emotional climaxes on the much-discussed Chess tournament. But the event plays out here with a low-key effect that is all the more powerful for its understated realism.
X-Men: Days of Future Past - The Silver Is Quick
The film was a bit of a mish-mash overall, but the stunning time-fiddling set-piece in which the super-fast Quicksilver (Evan Peters) takes out a room full of heavies showed Bryan Singer can still occasionally deliver the goods, and threw down the gauntlet for Marvel's version of the character in the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he is played by Peters' Kick Ass co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Big Hero 6 - Meet Baymax
The screening of this film I attended was 95 per cent comprised of sugar-addled under-eights, rowdy to the hilt. When robot co-star Baymax first inflated on screen, about fifteen minutes into the film, the cinema went completely silent except for the sustained, delighted gasps of several hundred children.
Guardians of the Galaxy - The Escape Plan
James Gunn's wonderfully old school adventure comes together just as the titular gang of misfits do in order to escape the space prison they've all been thrown in. In one stunning, hilarious, thrilling set-piece, every character gets a chance to shine, and the giddy joy of the film they're in becomes truly apparent.
Gone Girl - Honey I'm Home
Without getting into spoilery-specifics, this is one of those scenes where a character perfectly articulates what every audience member is thinking. In a private whisper.
Whiplash - The Smile
I'm including this bonus eleventh moment to make up for my shamefully (accidentally) leaving Whiplash off my Best of 2014 list. (I would've put it between Housebound and Boyhood). I can't really discuss this particular moment without potentially undermining the experience of watching the film for those who haven't seen it. But if you have, you know what I'm talking about. And whoa.
* Your favourite movie moments of 2014? Comment below!
- nzherald.co.nz
