Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director: James Gunn

Starring: Chris Pratt, Michael Rooker

A group of intergalactic criminals are forced to work together to stop a fanatical warrior from taking control of the universe.

As I’m not a big superhero movie fan, I actually expected not to like this, but I was thoroughly entertained! Hats off to director James Gunn for a styling job well done! The visuals and special effects are incredible, and the non-human characters look amazingly real and blend perfectly with their surroundings. The action is flawless. A good blend of action, suspense and humor. Entertainment value: 10/10. Visuals & make-up: 10/10. Oh, Rocket has to be my favorite Guardian! Bradley Cooper voices him so well!

Uhmmm, why was Vin Diesel cast to voice Groot? He literally has ONE sentence – which he says about a hundred times throughout the film: “I am Groot”, and off course “We are Groot” at the end. OK, so he had TWO sentences to learn. They might well have recorded the sentence and used playback. No-one would have noticed.

The film received 49 nominations and won 15, including Best Make-up and Excellence in Production Design.  The film was also a huge box office success by raking in $773 million.