2015 Movies

The Films of 2015

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A full list of 2015 Films on Wikipedia

My Top Picks

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Martian, The: Pretty good. Good science and good acting. The 3D was good too.

5. Ant-Man: At last a marvel film that concentrates on the smaller interactions -- and it's funny too.

6. 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.

7. Inside Out: Another brilliant film from Pixar. I loved that it wasn't all about being happy.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. Project Almanac: Fun.

11. 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.

12. Vacation: This was actually quite a lot of fun.

13. 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

1. Kingsman

2. Project Almanac

3. Shaun the Sheep Movie

4. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

5. Avengers: Age of Ultron

6. Mad Max: Fury Road

7. San Andreas

8. Jurassic Park

9. Terminator 5: Genesys

10. Mission Impossible 5

11. Vacation

12. Maze Runner 2: The Scorch Trials

13. Visit, The

14. Spectre

15. Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, The

16. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Films from 2015 that I saw on the "small screen"

1. Age of Adaline, The

2. Ant-Man

3. Chappie

4. Cinderella

5. Crimson Peak

6. Divergent Series: Insurgent, The

7. Everest

8. Fantastic Four, The

9. Fifty Shades of Grey

10. Get Hard

11. Good Dinosaur, The

12. Grimsby

13. Home

14. Hot Tub Time Machine 2

15. Hotel Transylvania 2

16. In the Heart of the Sea

17. Inside Out

18. Insidious: Chapter 3

19. Jupiter Ascending

20. Krampus

21. Last Witch Hunter, The

22. Little Boy

23. Martian, The

24. Minions

25. Pan

26. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

27. Peanuts Movie, The

28. Pixels

29. Point Break

30. Poltergeist

31. Run All Night

32. Scouts vs Zombies

33. Seventh Son

34. SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, The

35. Spy

36. Strange Magic

37. Ted 2

38. Tomorrowland

39. Trainwreck

40. Unfriended

41. 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.

1. Bajrangi Bhaijaan

2. Black Mass

3. Blackhat

4. Boy Next Door, The

5. Child 44

6. Coup, The

7. Criminal

8. Desert Dancer

9. Don't Mess with Texas

10. Entourage

11. Focus

12. Friday the 13th 3D reboot

13. Furious 7

14. Gunman, The

15. Hateful Eight, The

16. Hitman: Agent 47

17. Intern, The

18. Jane Got a Gun

19. Jem and the Holograms

20. Joy

21. Kidnap

22. Kitchen Sink

23. Lazarus

24. Longest Ride, The

25. Magic Mike XXL*

26. Man from U.N.C.L.E., The

27. Masterminds

28. McFarland, USA

29. Mean Moms

30. Midnight Special

31. Monkey Kingdom

32. Monster Trucks

33. Moon and the Sun, The

34. Mortdecai

35. Paper Towns *

36. Pitch Perfect 2

37. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo

38. Regression

39. Revenant, The *

40. Ricki and the Flash

41. Rock the Kasbah

42. Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The

43. Selfless

44. Sinister 2

45. Sisters

46. Spare Parts

47. St. James Place

48. Straight Outta Compton

49. Taken 3*

50. Transporter Legacy, The

51. Triple Nine

52. Unfinished Business

53. Victor Frankenstein *

54. Walk, The *

55. Wedding Ringer, The

56. Wild Card