The Promotion (2008) - Conrad's under-appreciated supermarket comedy

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+ Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year 

 

A tense stand-off in an office between two famous funny-men make up this poster for Steve Conrad's The Promotion

Doug is told that he is a 'shoe-in' for the open position of store manager of a large, newly opened Donaldson's grocery store, - but then the Canadian wildcard Richard enters the equation...

The Promotion is written and directed by great Floridian filmmaker Steve Conrad (Lawrence Melm (2004)).

Seann William Scott (Mr. Woodcock (2007)) gets totally free of the shadow of his goofy American Pie (1999; 2001; 2003; 2012) stardom here and is brilliant as an insecure, worried boss-to-be, and John C. Reilly (Dark Water (2005)) is incredibly funny as the imbecile Canadian competition with self-help audio in his ears. With a terrific supporting cast, this is a rare workplace comedy that's really good and hilarious. It challenges the power of the promotion for the regular Joe and succeeds handsomely with plenty of laughs at the expense of the often politically incorrect reality.

 

Related posts:

 

Steve Conrad: Wonder (2017) - Remember napkins for Chbosky's heart-warming family drama (co-writer)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) - Stiller's sweet, visually splendid Christmas present (writer) 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) - Two Smiths inspire hearts and minds in true-story drama (writer)

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 8 mil. $

Box office: 457k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.05 times its cost)

[The Promotion premiered 9 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, USA) and runs 86 minutes. Shooting took place around July 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. The film opened #46 to a 30k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #22 and in 81 theaters, grossing 408k $ (89.3 % of the total gross). The film only has two other recorded markets, (it was also released theatrically in Portugal but the result goes unreported.) Germany with 33k $ (7.2 %) and Singapore with 15k $ (3.3 %.) Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Conrad has not returned with a feature as a director since, instead directing some TV and more turning towards writing. Scott returned in Role Models (2008); Reilly in The Simpsons (2008, TV-series) and theatrically in Step Brothers (2008). The Promotion is rotten at 55 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Promotion?

Hard Eight (1996) - Anderson debuts with downbeat crime drama

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 + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best Debut of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.13 Times the Cost + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Nevada Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

 

The iconic dark green of the dice table makes up the background on this simple poster for Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight

Sydney is an oldtimer and a veteran gambler, who knows some shortcuts in the business. He now takes the younger John under his wings, who finds himself in trouble, and later also the waitress and prostitute Clementine ...

 

Hard Eight is written and directed by debuting Californian master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch Drunk Love (2002)).

Anderson establishes an oppressive mood across this well-acted, downbeat, short-story-like tale, which also benefits from strong photography (by Robert Elswit (Syriana (2005))) and music (score by Jon Brion (Step Brothers (2008)) and Michael Penn (Boogie Nights (1997))).

We accept and embrace spending the running time here with these hard-pressed, desperate (loser) characters, mainly because Philip Baker Hall (The Zodiac (2005)), John C. Reilly (Rubberhead (2014, TV movie)), Gwyneth Palthrow (The Good Night (2007)), Samuel L. Jackson (The Incredibles (2004)) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Culture (1997, short)) are so absolutely excellent in their character portrayals.

 

Related posts:

Paul Thomas Anderson: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Phantom Thread (2017) - Anderson's exquisite drama of an English dressmaker and his Alma 

The Master (2012) - Anderson's stunning post-war reflection 
Boogie Nights (1997) - Anderson's irresistible porn 'Casino'

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

Here is a 3-minute clip from the film

 

Cost: 3 mil. $

Box office: 222k $ (North America only)

= Box office disaster (returned 0.07 times its cost in North America; projected total return of 0.13 times the cost)

[Hard Eight premiered 20 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 102 minutes. It is based on Anderson's own short film Cigarettes & Coffee (1993). Shooting took place in 1995 in Nevada. The film opened #27 to a 69k $ first weekend in 29 theaters in North America, where it grossed 222k $. It was also released in a handful of other markets, but grosses are regrettably not reported. If the film made a final gross of 400k $ it, would still rank as a box office disaster. It was nominated for 5 Independent Spirit awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Anderson returned with Michael Penn: Try (1997, music video) and theatrically with Boogie Nights (1997). Hall returned in The Little Death (1996); Reilly in Boys (1996); and Palthrow in The Pallbearer (1996). Hard Eight is certified fresh at 81 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hard Eight? 

Stan & Ollie (2018) - Brilliant work in simple, hilarious homage masterpiece

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+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Dramedy of the Year + English Movie of the Year + Best Homage of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Nina Arianda

A hat in mid-air and the two stars in full character getup feature on this simple poster for Jon S. Baird's Stan & Ollie

Laurel and Hardy reach the top as cinema's most beloved comedy double act in the 1930s but never achieve the great financial wealth or creative ownership of some of their peers. In 1953 the two are back together after many years apart in order to revive their joint career with an English tour; but reigniting stardom while staying friends proves no easy feat.

Stan & Ollie is written by Jeff Pope (Philomena (2013)), inspired by A.J. Marriot's book Laurel & Hardy - The British Tours (1993), and directed by Scottish master filmmaker Jon S. Baird (Filth (2013)), whose 3rd feature it is.
This is a simple and sincere, unseeming masterpiece; an honest, exceedingly good film, which simply doesn't have a flaw to it that's worth mentioning. Stan & Ollie is a film about friendship and professional companionship; about comedy and performing, and about life, getting something worthwhile out of it, and about reaching its inevitable end.
The film brims with enthusiasm and affection for its duo of subjects and their comedy, which is recreated with rare bravura by the master performances of acting greats Steve Coogan (The Other Guys (2010)) and John C. Reilly (Sing (2016)), who even give a great song performance with Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Coogan's empathized and impressively detailed invocation of Stan Laurel is awesome, and Reilly's inhabiting of the quite different Oliver Hardy is just as good. Their comedic acts highlight Laurel & Hardy's simpler, good-for-all brand of universal comedy, which seems to have all but disappeared now; but boy what a joy it is to see it back for a good show here in Stan & Ollie, - and boy, did the two of them make me laugh!
The film also has good supporting performances: Rufus Jones (Camping (2016, miniseries)) is spot-on as the dubious British booking agent, Shirley Henderson (Yes (2004)) is just right as Ollie's adoring shrew wife, but it is Nina Arianda (Hannibal (2015, TV-series)) who steals scenes and gets more than a few laughs of her own as Stan's imperiously proud, brief and lingually challenged Russian émigré wife. Fondly remembered from her turn in the comparable period showbiz dramedy Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), Arianda has a meatier part here and stands out.
Stan & Ollie has good production values, and it never sentimentalizes its time period by glossing it up. The photography is simple and to the point; SPOILER only in the final performance we linger profoundly at the duo's shadows on the stage, as Ollie's declining health forces them to the precipice of their collaboration.
The film opens with a delightful, long Steadicam shot through a major Hollywood studio in full swing, and the script tells the story with perfect command, never rushing, but getting its points down nonetheless, SPOILER reaching a (for some audiences personally) familiar culmination, where hard words are uttered between the two pals, which hurt like stab wounds.
Stan & Ollie is a wonderful film. - Don't miss seeing it on a big screen!

Related posts:

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 21.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say, - but presently a flop
[Stan & Ollie premiered 21 October (BFI London Film Festival, UK) and runs 97 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, in the spring of 2017. Reilly reportedly spent 4 hours daily in the makeup chair. The film opened #32 to a 78k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #20 and in 754 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 5.4 mil. $ (24.9 % of the total gross) North America was the film's 2nd biggest market; the UK were by far the biggest with a 13.6 mil. $ (62.7 %). Italy looks to be the 3rd biggest now, with 946k $ (4.4 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, 3 BAFTAs and 7 British Independent Film awards, winning none. It has yet to open in at least two more markets: Israel (6 June) and Turkey (28 June). Baird does not have an announced follow-up yet. Coogan returned in Hot Air (2018), Reilly in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) with a voice performance and physically in Holmes & Watson (2018). Stan & Ollie is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.48/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Stan & Ollie?

Wreck-It Ralph (2012) - Original story gets lost in benign but overly flashy animation

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The festive poster with kapow value for Rich Moore's Wreck-It Ralph

 

Ralph (John C. Reilly (Chicago (2002))), the arcade computer game character of the game Wreck-It Ralph, is tired of being a lonely outsider in his world, who only gets to smash things to smithereens. So he leaves his game to win a medal. - But his decision lands everyone else in the arcade game world in deep trouble!

 

Wreck-It Ralph begins as a fresh, original and really funny idea. But it later turns out to have some real problems: Sarah Silverman's (Masters of Sex (2014-16)) girly character and the villain King Candy (voiced by Alan Tudyk (Wonder Boys (2000))) are both boring, and it is as though Wreck-It Ralph gets lost in the candy world which much of it plays out in. It indulges in flashy animation for its own sake and attempts to pull an edifying story out of the mess in the end, which as a result feels cheap.

Before this meltdown, though, Wreck-It Ralph provides enough lavish and computer game-enthusiastic fun to make it worth seeing. Jane Lynch (Rio (2011)) and Jack McBrayer (Bad Night (2015)) are both fun, with the latter building on his Southern-charm trademark.

The film is written by Phil Johnston (Zootopia (2016)) and Jennifer Lee (Frozen (2013)) and directed by feature-debuting Rich Moore (Zootopia).

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 165 mil. $

Box office: 471.2 mil. $

= Box office success

[Wreck-It Ralph premiered October 29 (El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood) and runs 101 minutes. The concept for Wreck-It Ralph was developed first by Disney in the late 1980s, and was redeveloped and reconsidered several times before the film that came to be. Moore was hired based on his previous work directing animated TV-series such as The Simpsons (1990-93)) and Futurama (1999-01)). Wreck-It Ralph contains an estimated 188 individual character cameos from a wide variety of real and imaginary computer-games. The film opened #1 to a 49 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for a total of 3 weeks and grossed 189.4 mil. $ (40.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 36.1 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Japan with 29.6 mil. $ (6.3 %). Wreck-It Ralph was the 14th highest-grossing film and the 4th highest-grossing animation of the year. Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars, equal to a notch better than this review. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Feature, which it lost to Brave, and for the same Golden Globe, also lost. A sequel is in the works for a 2017 release. Wreck-It Ralph is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Wreck-It Ralph?

Cyrus (2010) - The Duplass brothers score hilarious dramedy gold

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Independent Movie of the Year

The simple, effective poster for Jay and Mark Duplass' Cyrus

John is a despairing, divorced man, who is thrilled to meet a genuinely sweet woman at a party, who becomes his girlfriend. The only problem is that she lives with her bizarre, 21 year-old son.

John C. Reilly (Carnage (2011)) is brilliant and really funny here in great New Orleanian writer-director brothers Jay and Mark Duplass' (Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011), both) small dramedy pearl. It plays on our tendency towards manipulation and lies when under pressure.
The vivacious camera concept (cinematographer Jas Shelton (The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015))) works well in this intimate story. Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street (2012)) and Marisa Tomei (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)) are also outstanding.
Cyrus has a good story and is funny as hell. - Don't miss it!

Related posts:

Jay & Mark Duplass:  Jeff Who Lives at Home (2011) or, Signs of Jeff
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Duplass brothers give an interview about the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 9.9 mil. $
= Big flop
[Cyrus premiered January 23 (Sundance) and runs 91 minutes. It was shot in and around January 2009. It opened in just 4 theaters to a solid 181k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 454 theaters and grossed 7.4 mil. $ (74.7 % of the total gross). It screened in 14 other countries with the 2nd and 3rd biggest markets being the UK with 1.9 mil. $ (19.2 %) and Mexico with 0.1 mil. $ (1%). Reilly got nominated for the Best Male Lead Independent Spirit award for his performance in the film. Cyrus is certified fresh at 80% with a 6.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Cyrus?

Dark Water (2005) - Salles' great, intensely creepy chiller

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Remake of the Year

The chilling poster for Walter Salles' Dark Water

QUICK REVIEW:

A divorce-torn mother moves into a shabby building with her daughter, whom the father does everything in his power to regain custody over. The flat is plagued by water damages, and both mother and daughter experience disturbing occurrences.

Dark Water is a remake of Hideo Nakata's (Ringu (1998)) great Japanese horror movie of the same name from 2002, written by Rafael Yglesias (From Hell (2001)) and directed by Brazilian master filmmaker Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries/Diarios de Motocicleta (2004)). It is an atmospherically dense horror, which lives up to the high quality of the original with intriguing characters, which has more to them than revealed at first glance.
Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream (2000)) knows her stuff in the lead, and she is supported by Tim Roth (Youth without Youth (2007)), John C. Reilly (The Lobster (2015)) and Pete Postlethwaite (The Constant Gardener (2005)), who all give fine performances. Ariel Gade (Call of the Wild (2009)), who portrays the girl, is also convincing.
Dark Water has skilled production design by Thérèse DePrez (The Drop (2014)) and ditto photography by Affonso Beato (The Queen (2006)) as well as an eminent score by Angelo Badalamenti (A Late Quartet (2012)), which results in a thoroughly unpleasant creeper in the vein of Repulsion (1965)). Dark Water is an impressively strong goosebumps and nightmare machine...

Related review:

Walter Salles: On the Road (2012) - A great ensemble and cinematography make Salles' good Kerouaca adaptation overcome its flaws

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

In lieu of a trailer for the film, which isn't to be found on Youtube currently, here's a 2012 interview with director Walter Salles

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 49.4 mil. $
= Big flop
[Dark Water was released July 8 and runs 105 minutes. It opened #4 to a 9.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 25.4 mil. $ (51.4 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 2.9 mil. $ (5.9 %) and the UK with 2.5 mil. $ (5.1 %). The film flopped mainly due to its illogically high budget. Dark Water fared poorly with critics generally, who didn't seem able to appreciate its many qualities. It is rotten at 46 % with a 5.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dark Water?

Carnage (2011) - Polanski castigates modern parents in greatly satirical play adaptation

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2 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Director: Roman Polanski (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Editing: Hervé de Luze (lost to The Artist)

+ Best New York Movie of the Year

The Andy Warhol-inspired, cool poster for Roman Polanski's Carnage

Two sophisticated, married New Yorker-couples meet in the one couple's apartment, because the other couple's son has hit their son hard with a stick.

Carnage is an adaptation of the 2006 play God of Carnage/Le Dieu du Carnage. The screenplay is co-written by master filmmaker, co-writer/director Roman Polanski (Rosemary's Baby (1968)) and playwright Yasmina Reza (Art (1994)). Polanski's direction, Pawel Edelman's (Venus in Fur (2013)) cinematography and Hervé de Luze's (The Pianist (2002)) editing is bulletproof in this excellent satire.
All four great lead actors deserve favorable mention for their fully engaged performances in Carnage: Jodie Foster (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)), Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road (2008)), Christoph Waltz (Big Eyes (2014)) and John C. Reilly (We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)). Both of the very different couples get their faults brandished mercilessly in the course of the film, but it is especially the over-reaching falseness and invasive beliefs of the politically correct liberal (Foster's character) that Polanski seethes his teeth into.
The heightened reality of the stage is transferred successfully into this film version, which can be described as a condensed societal attack, one that grows increasingly acidly funny as the thin veils of civilized behavior drop. - And dark. It is really perfect material for Polanski.
SPOILER The ending is a little abrupt, and it leaves it up to the viewer to assess the possible merits of the meeting of good-willed modern couples that has taken place.

 
Related posts:

Roman Polanski: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
The Ghost Writer/The Ghost (2010) - A master at work 
Chinatown (1974) - Polanski's masterpiece 
Cul-de-Sac (1966) - Edge-of-the-world island tale meanders at times, but is ultimately a winner

Watch the great trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 27.6 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Carnage was a French/German/Polish/Spanish co-production, which, it seems, was made on an over-blown budget, (it should have been no more than 10 mil. $ in my view), and therefore ended with burning red numbers. The film had a good run in European countries like Italy, where it ended up making 3.2 mil. €, but only made a very discouraging 2.5 mil. $ in the US (9 % of the total gross).]

What do you think of Carnage?

Cedar Rapids (2011) or, Insurance-Man

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Ed Helms looking like a moron, frankly, on the poster for Miguel Arteta's Cedar Rapids

QUICK REIVEW:

Upheaval is coming to a small town insurance company, and a childish employee gets sent to the important award conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Here he learns a thing or two and gets forced to step up.

Cedar Rapids is a low-budget comedy, which looks like a low-budget comedy and is about people in the insurance business ... In other words, it is a pretty unsexy film starring Ed Helms (The Hangover (2009)), whom I didn't think was particularly funny in it.
The film gets lifted by John C. Reilly (Carnage (2011)), and it has some scenes that get laughs, but also many that either miss their targets or are just plain not funny. Its script is written by Phil Johnston (Wreck-It Ralph (2012)).
Cedar Rapids is a thin feel-good comedy that is a near unofficial spin-off of the spectacularly successful Hangover. Perhaps my main issue with it was that I didn't relate to Helm's protagonist at all.
It is directed by the talented Puerto-Rican director Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt (2009)), who most recently made the underwhelming Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014).

John C. Reilly, Ed Helms and Isiah Whitlock Jr. in Miguel Arteta's Cedar Rapids

Watch the trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 6.8 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty
[The few foreign numbers I can find suggest that the film also did not set any foreign markets on fire: It made 0.5 mil. $ in the UK, the foreign market where it apparently did best. The film was shot in Michigan due to a more lucrative tax credit offered there. Although I can't know for sure without cost information, it looks like it was a big flop.]

What do you think of Cedar Rapids?

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Get giddy with this pretty awesome, silliest blockbuster of 2014

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Blockbuster of the Year

A delicious-looking poster for James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians is a new Marvel comic book adaptation of one of their more wacky properties, which looks like it will turn into its own movie franchise now:

Peter 'Star-Lord' Quill thinks he's all human: He has been taken from Earth following his mother's death in his childhood and is now a bounty-hunter after a very powerful and expensive orb. He gets it, but also becomes locked up with a band of celestial misfits (see posters). They break out, loose the orb and realize that it can be used to kill billions of innocents, so they decide to get it back to prevent that from happening.

Our outlaw heroes in Guardians are good, even if they are primarily out for money and revenge. Guardians of the Galaxy is a somewhat silly, off-center universe, which is apparent right off the bat as Star-Lord, - charmingly played by Chris Pratt (Her (2013)), - starts his dangerous orb-retrieval mission by dancing around to Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede, - just one of the film's many 1970's and 80's pop-rock-hits that make it all a little groovier. - And sillier and more refreshing than most superhero movies in recent years.
But the characters in themselves are also so strange that it would have been a catastrophe for any writer-director to have taken it all too deadly serious. And James Gunn (Slither (2006)) certainly doesn't choose that road: Guardians is probably the most irreverent, self-humorous huge superhero space opera creation of this millennium.
Bradley Cooper voices the raccoon Rocket, wrestler Dave Bautista is the intellectually limited but hard-punching Drax, and Vin Diesel, - in what must be one of the easiest earned top-billings ever, - voices the giant, living tree Groot, who can only say, 'I am Groot'. They are all fun characters. Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)) is a good difficult stepfather for Quill called Yondu, and John C. Reilly (Step Brothers (2008)) is fun as 'Corpsman Dey'. Glenn Close (Dangerous Liaisons (1988)) looks crazy as a tight-haired leader of the peaceful human planet.

They have apparently built some real, huge sets in London for the shooting of Guardians, which is hard to notice in it, because it looks almost completely animated. It is not a critique per se, because it has a consistent look and impressive stuff like the various skies and fights, - which are fun, but still don't draw out and eat up all the room from story and dialog, - but the tour de force cinematic experience is hard to achieve in an environment that feels so artificial as is the case in Guardians and other similar CGI-based giants.
Where Star Wars, in comparison, is always about good vs. evil, this the first Guardians film is more about friendship and comradeship, and diversity meeting and becoming unity, and very timely at that. By its end, the film is a sure and quite uplifting winner.
Guardians is certainly also the funniest major summer blockbuster ride of 2014, and it will certainly stimulate kids and make adults giddy from its permanent wit. Where Avengers (2012) entertained but at the same time punctured my last bit of superhero enthusiasm, Guardians is a new Marvel franchise that I found myself actually looking forward to seeing return by the end of the film. It seems also a good replacement for the X-Men franchise that I at Film Excess deemed obsolete a few months ago.
Guardians has one really vulgar, adult referential joke, (which I don't think it absolutely needed), but it will shoot (bad but as you'll realize; appropriate pun again) right over the heads of the younger ones in the audience, so I'd say the film is fine for any media-trained kid who is 8 years or older.
Pratt was sure fun here, but I hope he will have another, much more serious role to play in next summer's highly anticipated Jurassic World (2015), which will have to be a lot more serious than Guardians to be any bit scary. 

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
 

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 232.3 mil. $
Box office: 773.3 mil. $
= Box office success

What do you think of Guardians of the Galaxy?