Movies for the Year

As well as reading comic books a lot I also watch a lot of movies. I usually try to go once a week. My tally for the year is twenty, so I failed completely there. Over once a month is good I suppose.

I will rate the movies out of five. Just so you know I always judge the movie on the context on which it is made. So while 'Creed' isn't the greatest slice of film making ever made it is a fantastic boxing movie.

I have tried to list them in the rough date order in which I saw them.

Ex Machina - 4/5. Domhall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac fight over a replica android. Beautifully shot and well acted, it was taught and delivered. I really liked this movie.

Mr. Holmes - 4/5. Ian McClellan is a very old (90+) Sherlock Holmes trying to write his memoirs and also bond with his house keepers son. Really well done.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - 4/5. The Avengers have to tackle a new menace, one that has come from an unlikely source. Well shot, packed with gags, great action sequences. They really did another great job on this one. Enjoyed it from start to finish.

Pitch Perfect 2 - 4/5. The Bellas are at the top of their game when it all goes wrong. Can they climb back up? Funny from start to finish and warm without getting schmaltzy PP2 was another fantastic movie I really loved.

Mad Max: Fury Road - 4/5. Adrenaline filled orgasm of dust and blood. Really loved this movie.

Spy - 3/5. Melissa McCarthy takes over from Jude Law in the spy business. Solid comedy throughout. Very enjoyable.

Sicario - 5/5. Taught thriller about America's response in the 'Drug Wars'. Gripping, edge of your seat violence. Never fails to make you feel in danger. My movie of the year.

Aloha - 2/5. Bradley Cooper is a milatary contractor with a mixed past trying to move forward in his life. Although this has some good point, overall this one left me flat and wondering what the point was?

San Andreas - 2/5. Dwayne Johnson is a rescue pilot in San Fransisco determined to save his family in the face of the greatest earthquake to hit the world. Large, noisy with seeming never ending waves of disaster. The film grew ever more cheesy as it went on.

It Follows - 4/5. Horror movie about a presence that tracks and kills young people. Shot around Detroit it's worth watching for the cinematography. I get lost in a lot of horror but this one worked. Worth a watch.

Jurassic World - 2.5/5. Chris Pratt warns against making super dinosaurs but nobody listens. Pratt is great and the action sequences are good too but overall I had to throw my brain out of the window to like it.

Minions 2.5/5 - Kevin, Stuart and Bob help their clan by seeking a new villain for them to work for. Family fun but without Gru, the jokes dragged for me and there was no centre to the film. Still it was fun in a lot of places.

Southpaw - 3/5. Jake Gyllenhaal is a boxer who loses his wife and his title. He fights to get one back. Good in a lot of sections there is a huge plot point that annoyed me for the rest of the film. The boxing was good but, without spoiling the film, the title is wrong. Worth watching for Forest Whitaker's turn.

Terminator: Genisys - 3/5. Emilia Clarke takes over as Sarah Conner and is helped by origional Terminator Arnold trying to defeat Skynet. Although this wasn't warmly recived it hit a lot of high points for me. Enjoyed it from start to finish.

Ant-Man - 4/5. Paul Rudd tries to rob Michael Douglas and end up becoming the titular hero. Yhis one hit my sweet spot and while not massive enough to be the best SH movie, it's my favourite of the year. Warm and heroic. Glad to hear Ant-Man will be in Civil War.

Fantastic Four - 1/5. Miles Teller leads his friends to become a super team after gaining mysterious powers. This started okay then changed movies 2/3 of the way through. Ended as a disaster. I hope Fox give up the FF license and let someone else try to make a movie with them.

Black Mass - 4/5. Johnny Depp with a wonderful turn as James 'Whitey' Bulger. Crime and corruption in Boston. Gripped me from start to finish, even though I knew the story pretty well.

Spectre - 3/5. Daniel Craig has his fourth outing as Bond in this follow on from Skyfall. Enjoyable through a lot of the film it does drop the ball on a few things. It seemed a logical end point for Craig as Bond but the word on the street is there will be a fifth follow up.

Creed - 4/5. Michael B Jordan is Adonis, Apollo Creed's illegitimate son. He teams with Sly's Rocky to become a pro boxer. Really enjoyed this. Avoided many of the traps of later Rocky movies and Sly was really good. maybe as good as the original.

Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens - 4/5. I finished the year with the most anticipated film. Disney's take on Star Wars. They included the original cast well and the new characters . The new guys are wonderful and made the movie for me. The plot is a re-hash of Episode 4 and I didn't like the 'Big Bad', which stopped it being perfect. Still, I've been 4 times already and I'm making plans for number five. So excited for the next movie.


 So best of the bunch was Sicario. Favourites were Ant-Man and Star Wars. It Follows was a left field choice worth checking out.

That's 2015 wrapped up. I'll try and run through what I'm looking forwards too in 2016.