#10
This is the movie that everyone was hoping for when the Phantom Menace released back in the late 90's. That movie was such a letdown. All the bad acting, stupid action scenes, awful jokes, and just overall cartoony feel of the movie completely wrecked it for nearly everyone who loved the old movies as much as I did. It was so bad.
This film takes Star Wars in a completely different direction and is more of a throwback to the original trilogy. Thank God!
It's dark, the action scenes feel a lot more authentic, the acting is strong and it's just... I don't know how to describe it. Authentic to the Star Wars universe.
This film focuses mainly on new characters, but expect to see more than your fair share of Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia. I thought that Luke was supposed to be a big character here, but he only appears for like 20 seconds at the end of the movie. The main focus of the film is on finding Luke, who has gone into hiding after an apprentice of his took up the Dark Side and destroyed everything that he was trying to rebuild.
I will go ahead and say that I am an avid reader of the books that take place after the original movie trilogy. So I kind of had an idea in my mind of what should have happened after those films. However, this movie tosses all of those books out the window and starts over again. At first I wasn't a huge fan of this and it nearly wrecked the movie for me. Luke is supposed to have a Jedi Academy. Han is supposed to be respectable, married to Leia with three kids. The New Republic is supposed to be in charge, and the Empire is supposed to be just a few remaining factions squabbling over scraps.
In this movie, the happily ever after isn't quite so happily. Han and Leia are separated. Their child has turned to the dark side and has taken up Darth Vader's work. One thing that majorly bugged me was how we don't really get a good grasp of the political situation of the galaxy. Is the New Republic running the show? Who is this First Order? Are they remnants of the Empire? Are they something different? It's never really explained to us what the Resistance is either and how it relates to the New Republic.
All these things bothered me. Plus I thought the plot was a little too reminiscent of A New Hope. Really, hiding something in a droid and setting it loose in the desert? Come on.
Despite all of this though, I really liked the movie. The characters are great, new and old. It was nice to see the returning characters and how they have aged over all the years. Rey is awesome and may be my new favorite Star Wars character.
The movie looks great. The action scenes are all fantastic. Not even close to that cartoony crap in the prequels. The tone of the movie is terrific and reminiscent to the original films. Intense action and a fast paced story line, but just enough humor to keep things light hearted. It is just very engaging as a whole. Even my wife who isn't the world's biggest Star Wars fan really enjoyed this movie.
I don't think I liked the movie as much as I should have, simply because it was SO different from what I expected. I have actually seen it again in 2016 (it was one of the first movies I watched this year) and liked it much, much better the second time around. So expect to see an even better ranking next year, possibly.
As much as I wanted this to be my number one movie of the year, I just couldn't justify that. It is certainly a good movie, but there were a few other films that impacted me on more of an emotional level than this did.
#9
I wasn't really sure what to make of this movie when I first heard of it. I am not really a big fan of either war movies or survival films, and this movie sounded like it was going to be a combination of the two. And it is. But I liked it.
This movie tells the story of an Olympic runner named Louie who enlists to fight in World War II. His plane goes down and he is forced to live on a raft with a couple of injured and dying compatriots. These events in and of themselves could have made up the whole movie. The events leading up to the war, the drama on the raft, that sense of hopelessness in the air. But this is only half of the film. The man is rescued from the raft after an insane 47 days adrift only to be taken captive by the Japanese.
As their captive he is tortured, beaten, and generally made miserable for several years. What a tough life! Eventually the war ends, and he is able to come back home. The reunion at the end is such a great moment. It brought a tear to my eye.
This movie is based on a true story too, and it was interesting to see pictures of the actual people involved in this story. I am usually not a special features guy, but I watched them all for this film. Seeing Louie as an old man talk about what he went through really made me admire his spirit. Any other person would have went through what he did, and it would have broken them. But he didn't let it ruin him. I guess that is where the name Unbroken comes in.
Great movie. Beautifully filmed, very inspirational. One of my favorites that I watched in 2015.
#8
When I first heard about this movie, I was intrigued by its concept. Shot over the span of 12 years, Boyhood follows the life of a young boy as he grows into a man. The film uses the same actors and actresses over these 12 years, and we actually see them age as the movie progresses.
If you are looking for a big exciting plot or mysterious twists, this is not the movie for you. Instead, this movie is just simply about the ups and downs of life. The boy comes from a splintered family where the parents are spearated. The mom moves on to a series of bad marriages while the hard partying dad eventually settles down and becomes very responsible.
All throughout this movie we see things through the boy's perspective. He goes through many phases in his young life, and he is forced to adapt and react to all of these things happening to him and around him. As I said, this isn't necessarily the most exciting movie out there. It's more interesting than anything. And I particularly was interested in this movie because a lot of the same situations this young boy found himself in, I myself went through as a child as well.
Even though it is very long (nearly 3 hours, if I recall correctly) the movie never seems too long or too boring. In fact, it pretty much flew by for me.
This movie may not be for everyone. I am sure there are some people out there that thought it was too long or too uneventful. But I am not one of those people.
#7
Of all the movies I watched last year that made the top ten, this is probably the one that nobody saw coming. I had never even heard of this movie until it popped up on my list of Netflix recommendations. The description talked about the world ending and a man on his quest for redemption before he died, or something of that nature. I thought it sounded interesting and added it to my list. Maybe I would watch it. Maybe not.
I am very, very glad I did. The premise of the movie is that the world is about to end. In fact, there is less than a day before a tremendous blast of heat put off by the sun or something (I forget the exact cause) scorches the entire planet and kills everyone.
As expected, the world loses its mind. People start rioting, killing, looting, raping, doing whatever the hell they please. The world is going to end, why bother conforming to the rules of society anymore? A man decides to leave behind the woman he loves so he can go get fucked up and go out partying. On his way to the party to end all parties (literally) he sees a little girl being attacked and nearly raped. He saves the day and decides to take this girl under his wing.
Even though the world is going to end he doesn't want her to have to experience that. He mistakenly brings the girl to the party with him, and again has to rescue her when she is drugged by some psycho woman who thinks she is his daughter.
The man realizes the error of his ways and brings the girl to her house, where it is discovered that her whole family has committed suicide. The girls wants to stay with her family until the end, so the man agrees and leaves her behind. Realizing what is truly important in life, he heads back to his love that he had abandoned and together the two meet their end as the wave of heat swoops in and kills them both.
This is definitely a very dark movie, but the atmosphere it creates is just incredible. Knowing the world is going to end and that the only way this film can end is the death of everyone puts an enormous burden on you as a viewer. The feel of the movie right from the get go is so heavy and depressing that you almost can't stand it. You feel what the characters are feeling. This enormous lump of dread forms in your stomach almost immediately.
I think this film would make a lot of people uncomfortable, but that is why I like it so much. I have never experienced a movie like this before. The emotions it provokes from the viewer are unmatched and unprecedented. Right away I could tell this movie was different and unique. And it definitely proved to be that.
It definitely deserves this high ranking for being one of the most unique, intense, and heavy hearted films I have ever seen. I have never seen a movie quite like this one before, and I don't know if I ever will again.
#6
I am a huge fan of Jurassic Park. I saw the original movie in the theaters when I was a kid. I owned it on VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray. I don't know how many times I have seen it in my life. A countless number of times. It has to rank as one of my favorite movies of all time. The sequels I enjoyed for the most part, but neither of them came close to matching the excellence of the original.
Years and years passed since Jurassic Park 3 came out. I thought for sure the series was dead.
Until it wasn't. When I first heard about the release of Jurassic World, I was ecstatic. After two decent but mainly forgettable sequels, I was ready for a movie that would finally be able to recreate the magic of the first film and do it justice. I had high hopes. Clearly, everyone saw what was wrong with the two sequels and there was no way they would make the same mistake again. Right?
Right. I thought this movie was excellent, as evidenced by its high ranking. As a kid I always wondered what Jurassic Park would look like if the dinosaurs hadn't run amok and wrecked everything, and this movie brings that vision to life. The park itself is really amazing. If it was real, I would want to live there. In fact, even if there was no plot to this movie at all and it was just people walking around and exploring the park with no action or drama whatsoever, I would still love this movie.
The story isn't stellar or anything, but it fuels the movie and keeps it going. The action is high intensity. Once the Ndamukong Rex, as I call it, breaks loose the action never lets up. I was on the seat of my pants the whole second half of the film. Props to the movie makers for giving many subtle (and some not so subtle) shout outs to the original film. That little touch of nostalgia went a long way for me.
Everything looks amazing. All the effects, the dinosaurs, everything. The fight at the end between the Ndamukong and the tyrannosaur is legendary. I just wish there was more of the T-Rex in this movie.
I actually saw this film twice (maybe even more) last year. The first time I saw it I was blown away and didn't notice any flaws in the movie. The second time around when I was less awestruck I did notice some things that bugged me, particularly the acting. It's not phenomenal. But on the flip side it is not so bad that it wrecks the movie. At least for me.
All in all, I thought this movie was a blast. It still isn't as good as the original film, but it is by far the sequel that comes the closest to matching its grandeur. Here's to the inevitable follow up film in the future. And may that one be even better than this.
#5
I thought that this sounded like a really interesting documentary, and all the reviews I read about it had heaped copious amounts of praise onto the film. So I decided to check it out.
It's about a missing child who returns to his parents after going missing for about 10 years. He is welcomed back with lots of tears and open arms. There is only one problem - it isn't the actual son that went missing. It is a con man who has taken his place.
The movie centers around the con man and the steps he took to blend in with the family. It also focuses on the family and how they could have possibly been fooled into believing that this random guy (who wasn't even an American) was their beloved son.
More than halfway into the film, it drops a bombshell on us and suggests that perhaps the family had killed the boy, and the reason they accepted this impostor was so as not to raise suspicions of to what they actually did.
This was just a really, really fascinating movie for me. I got sucked into this case and was on the edge of my seat for much of the film. Anyone even remotely interested should check it out.
#4
I've seen this movie in the past once before, and I liked it. But I can't recall liking it as much as I did when I watched it in 2015. I thought it was really fantastic the second time around.
Strictly on a visual level, it is one of the best looking movies I have ever seen. Everything is just so lush and beautiful looking, especially in India in the beginning of the movie. I want to LIVE in that zoo. In fact, the whole first half hour of the movie was just astonishing to me. I recall being kinda bored by it the first time around, but this time - I thought it was tremendous. I really got into it on an emotional level.
The rest of the movie with the shipwreck, the tiger on the raft, the island and all that is just as strong as I remember. There were no dull moments in this film for me. It is heavy hitting emotionally, while also managing to uplift at the same time. I just thought it was really engaging and terrific from beginning to end.
Not a huge fan of the ending though, in either the book or the movie.
#3
I had heard that this was a really good movie. As you know if you have been reading this list, I watched all the older Mad Max movies in order leading up to this film as preparation for Fury Road.
But I didn't really like any of the older Mad Max films. As a result, I thought for sure I wouldn't like this and I would discover that it was overrated. However, I am glad to say this was completely and unequivocally not the case.
This movie is amazing. From beginning to end, it is one giant roller coaster of action. Usually when movies are mainly fighting or chasing or explosions (see any Michael Bay movie) this gets old after a while. Not so with Fury Road. This movie does almost everything right that you would expect out of an action movie. It's over the top without being stupid. It has great characters that you can relate to. And it keeps you interested by constantly changing things up and putting you as the viewer into newer, crazier situations. The movie constantly outdoes itself on a basis that I have never quite seen before from an action movie.
There is really only one word I can use to describe this movie, and it is awesome. Everything about it is just awesome. As soon as this movie ended, I wanted to go back and watch it over from the beginning again. That NEVER happens with me. Never.
I actually didn't want to watch it again, because I wanted it to be fresh the next time I see it. And I will watch it again, I can guarantee that. Don't be surprised to see this movie crack the top 10 yet again on 2016's movie ranking list.
#2
This was a movie that I watched twice in 2015. The first time I watched it, I was playing on my phone and not paying attention. When the film ended I was just like "eh it was okay" and then I went about my business. Time passed, and the more I thought about it the more irritated with myself I became.
I knew that I owed it to this film to watch it more closely and give it my undivided attention. So I watched it again a few months later and hid my phone in the other room.
Surprise surprise, I thought the movie was incredible the second time around. I had read the book, plus I had seen the movie once before, so I knew what to expect. But really paying attention and really getting involved in the story, the movie blew my mind.
It is just so well done, so hard hitting and emotional. The flashbacks to Cheryl's past, the scenes with her mom and her ex. They are all so real and add such depth to the character. It gives her hike so much more weight and purpose.
Over the course of the film you really become attached to Cheryl and what she is going through on her journey. You can't help but admire her spirit. She takes you along on this amazing ride of self discovery amidst the harsh and unforgiving beauty of nature.
It is truly an extraordinary movie that had me in tears more times than I can count. Terrific movie and it completely does the book justice. I can't believe I almost wrote it off after that first viewing where I was on my phone the whole movie. It makes me wonder how many other great movies there are out there that I have missed because I've been too busy doing other things to pay attention to them.
#1
When I first heard that this movie was in production I was thinking "really?" I like Stephen Hawking and everything but I thought a movie about him would be about as dull as dull could be.
I've never been more happy to be so wrong. Obviously you can tell by the #1 ranking that I really liked this movie. I loved this movie actually. It took all my expectations, crumpled them up into a little ball, threw the ball on the floor and jumped up and down on it repeatedly.
Stephen had such an interesting life. You think of him now and you just picture the guy slouched over in his wheelchair, drooling and talking with a robotic voice. But there is so much more to Stephen Hawking than that. He was an actual person once, with hopes and dreams and goals. He was in school, he was in love.
This movie has a lot of poignant moments, but none more so than Stephen recieving his diagnosis of ALS. This whole scene was so amazingly filmed, and you could really feel his dread. It was like he was being told that his life was over. And he had so much to live for.
And his story ended up being very inspirational. He fought through all the hard times, breaking down scientific boundaries while his body failed him. It was heartbreaking to see him deteriorate as the movie progressed. But uplifting to see that he didn't let his condition defeat him.
This is by far one of the saddest movies you will ever see. No human being should ever have to go through what he did physically. Seeing him and his brilliant mind lose the ability to communicate, seeing him almost die on multiple occasions. It really is tragic. But like I said, he pushes through it and the way he continued to be a scientific force after losing almost complete control of his whole body is quite the story.
This movie ran the full spectrum of emotions for me. Sorrow, humor, heartbreak, triumph, discovery.... this movie had it all. Not only was I mesmerized by the story unfolding in front of me, but I was also completely emotionally invested as well.
It was a tough call for the best movie I watched in 2015. Any one of these top five could have won it for me. But the nod goes to the Theory of Everything. Great movie, terrifically acted, and well deserving of my #1 spot.
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