2015 Movies
My Top Picks
San Andreas: A totally unexpected "big dumb movie" but somehow the effects were really good and the Rock was really likeable. It was strangely amusing that he was a rescue worker who always found the appropriate safety and vehicles but usually he just drove, sped or flew on past the hundreds of people who needed his help. Nope, he was just about saving his family.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens: I originally gave this the number one position but after the hype wore off, I started to see it for what it was, a collection of the "best of" scenes from the other Star Wars films. I think it also helped that it had some of the best 3D I've ever seen. Things I didn't like; Another Death Star (no matter what they called it), some by-the-numbers plot points, mostly wiping the canon of the EU from books and comics. Things I liked, pretty much everything else. I feel sorry for George Lucas. His prequels were attempts to be a little original and add the wider story -- and some political intrigue but all anyone ever wanted was "more of the same". JJ Abrams delivers exactly that.
Mad Max: Fury Road: Can't say I was expecting much particularly after George Miller's Babe genre change but this delivered. A stark film with almost no dialog and everything rendered in Blue and Orange.
Martian, The: Pretty good. Good science and good acting. The 3D was good too.
Ant-Man: At last a marvel film that concentrates on the smaller interactions -- and it's funny too.
Chappie: I loved this. A great return to form for Neil Blomkamp after the very disappointing Elysium. Admittedly it was just short-circuit in a gangland setting.
Inside Out: Another brilliant film from Pixar. I loved that it wasn't all about being happy.
Terminator 5: Genesys: This was "fine" but I'd have preferred a continuation of the Christian Bale thing. Good ideas but a little too derivative.
Kingsman: The Secret Service: Another unexpected film. I'm not sure that I liked Sam L Jackson's performance this time round but the rest was brilliant.
Project Almanac: Fun.
Cinderella: Totally unexpected. I don't know how this made it to the "top" list. I wasn't even planning on seeing it but the treatment of the material was done so well.
Vacation: This was actually quite a lot of fun.
Jurassic World: We make dinosaurs, we underestimate them, they get out, they eat people and then we run away. A copy of the original with less likeable characters. No idea how it garnered so much support.
Notable Mentions ("Surprise" Films)
Shaun the Sheep Movie: Obviously Shaun is great but after the Wallace and Gromit movie, I had fairly low expectations. This was particularly well written.
Little Boy: I was expecting a saccharine-soaked trip through an old man's past but this wasn't it. It was a great period story full of fun and great references. Well worth a watch.
San Andreas: I wasn't expecting much from this one but it was way better than the last big disaster movie (2012). Sure, there were a lot of unbelievable moments but the Rock's charisma carried him through.
In the Heart of the Sea: I was expecting Moby Dick... This story was better.
Insidious Chapter 3: Still good. Still scary. Not too derivative.
Grimsby: I wasn't expecting much but it was good fun.
Ant-Man: Sometimes it feels as if the Marvel films have gotten way too big. They're concentrating on bringing in as many characters as they can, on having giant explosions, bigger and bigger threats and more and more villains. It feels like there's no room for character development. Fortunately Ant-Man has everything that is missing from the recent Marvel films.
Age of Adaline, The: I figured this would just be a "Benjamin Button" clone but it was better than that. A rich and thought-provoking drama.
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension: No, nothing terribly surprising about the storyline but amazing use of 3D. It's one of the few films that I'd say, either watch it in 3D or not at all.
Strange Magic: It's hard to know if this is good or bad. At the time when I was watching it, it wasn't good until I got to the end and looked back over the whole thing. Then I was impressed -- but now as it fades into memory, all I remember is the bad.
The Biggest Disappointments
Hot Tub Time Machine 2: Simply awful. Plodding, annoying and overly complicated for a comedy.
Seventh Son, The: A mostly incomprehensible mess of clichés.
Maze Runner 2: The Scorch Trials: While the first Maze Runner had a very simple story, it was new and fresh. The second increases story complexity but at the risk of looking like a dozen other (better directed) movies.
Jurassic World: Nothing actually wrong with this movie. It was good, the Dinosaurs ate the bad people but not the kids, the main characters were dull but likeable. The problem was simply that there's nowhere to go. Jurassic Park really only has one story to tell.
Crimson Peak: This wasn't a "bad" film, simply a sub-par effort from Guillermo del Toro. If it had been a film from more or less any less accomplished director, it would have been pretty good.
All the films I've seen at the Cinemas in 2015
Kingsman
Project Almanac
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Mad Max: Fury Road
San Andreas
Jurassic Park
Terminator 5: Genesys
Mission Impossible 5
Vacation
Maze Runner 2: The Scorch Trials
Visit, The
Spectre
Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, The
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Films from 2015 that I saw on the "small screen"
Age of Adaline, The
Ant-Man
Chappie
Cinderella
Crimson Peak
Divergent Series: Insurgent, The
Everest
Fantastic Four, The
Fifty Shades of Grey
Get Hard
Good Dinosaur, The
Grimsby
Home
Hot Tub Time Machine 2
Hotel Transylvania 2
In the Heart of the Sea
Inside Out
Insidious: Chapter 3
Jupiter Ascending
Krampus
Last Witch Hunter, The
Little Boy
Martian, The
Minions
Pan
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
Peanuts Movie, The
Pixels
Point Break
Poltergeist
Run All Night
Scouts vs Zombies
Seventh Son
SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, The
Spy
Strange Magic
Ted 2
Tomorrowland
Trainwreck
Unfriended
Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, The
What's Left to See from 2015
The boldfaced titles are the ones I'm most interested in;
* Denotes titles I've acquired but haven't gotten around to watching yet.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Black Mass
Blackhat
Boy Next Door, The
Child 44
Coup, The
Criminal
Desert Dancer
Don't Mess with Texas
Entourage
Focus
Friday the 13th 3D reboot
Furious 7
Gunman, The
Hateful Eight, The
Hitman: Agent 47
Intern, The
Jane Got a Gun
Jem and the Holograms
Joy
Kidnap
Kitchen Sink
Lazarus
Longest Ride, The
Magic Mike XXL*
Man from U.N.C.L.E., The
Masterminds
McFarland, USA
Mean Moms
Midnight Special
Monkey Kingdom
Monster Trucks
Moon and the Sun, The
Mortdecai
Paper Towns *
Pitch Perfect 2
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo
Regression
Revenant, The *
Ricki and the Flash
Rock the Kasbah
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The
Selfless
Sinister 2
Sisters
Spare Parts
St. James Place
Straight Outta Compton
Taken 3*
Transporter Legacy, The
Triple Nine
Unfinished Business
Victor Frankenstein *
Walk, The *
Wedding Ringer, The
Wild Card